


Fox Whiskers

by paww



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Demon Hunters, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Demon!Naruto, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Hunter!Sasuke, M/M, Mutual Pining, NSFW, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:01:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28884312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paww/pseuds/paww
Summary: The Konoha Hunter's Guild is having trouble handling the sudden uptick in demon activity within the city. Needing a stronger set of hands, they decide to kidnap a powerful demon fox and force him into working for them.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 12
Kudos: 52





	1. Naruto

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for the help, Fren.
> 
> Enjoy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto gets fox-napped.

If I wasn’t so unbelievably pissed that a hunter was crawling around my apartment, I might be impressed that he had the balls to do it.

I stand against the wall of my bedroom that’s shared with the hallway, ear pressed to the surface, but I can’t hear anything. Instinct had woken me up to a presence within my apartment, which is really interesting since I happen to live alone. Nothing distinct had woken me up so the intruder is doing an excellent job at keeping silent. I can’t tell where in the apartment he is. 

The clock on my nightstand reads 04:23, which is just way too early to be woken up on a Tuesday. I need to come up with some kind of plan but that was never really my strong suit. I turn my gaze back on the door and stand up off the wall. One of us was going to have to make the first move, and the longer I wait the more I place myself at a disadvantage. 

I rule out the intruder being a typical thief. The average person wasn’t talented enough to sneak in like this. It has been a while since I had a run in with a hunter. Generally, I’m left alone so long as I don’t get into too much trouble, and I haven’t in a while. Nothing to warrant being put on the Guild’s shit list, at least. The sudden intrusion is an aggressive move.

I don’t want to stand around for too long. I’ve tested a hunter’s patience before and I’m painfully outmatched. I know the hunter is willing to wait much longer than I am willing to tolerate someone in my fucking apartment.

I breathe out steadily and wrap my hand around the door handle, twisting it and allowing the door to slowly open into the room. There’s no immediate response or triggered trap from the action but I still check the door for any signs of tampering before stepping out of the bedroom.

Crossing the hallway gives me better cover before it opens into the living room, so I switch sides and stay close to the wall. I still can’t hear anyone and I begin to wonder if I’m being paranoid. My gut usually doesn’t lie to me though so I decide it’s better to creep around like a psycho over getting stabbed in my sleep.

I can see my front door and it’s still shut and locked, but that doesn’t mean much. There’s a faint scent that I don’t recognize but I can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from.

Stepping out of the hallway, I stay on alert as I creep into the living room. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Until something in my brain triggers and I jerk my head to the side just as a kunai embeds itself into the wall across from me. It stings where the blade just managed to nick my cheek.

I immediately turn on heel and block a kick with my arm. I swing at the attacker but he ducks out of the way. I lean back to avoid an uppercut to the chin.

I recover quickly. We exchange a few blows but the hunter is pretty proficient and I have to go on the defensive to block each limb that comes my way. He catches me with a solid fist to the cheek and I carry through with the motion, dropping low to kick my foot right into his gut. 

I taste blood but it seems to be from my teeth catching my tongue so I ignore it.

The hunter falls but rolls backwards, back onto his feet effortlessly, and resets into a defensive stance. He pulls out another kunai blade, in a way that’s slightly showier than necessary, and adjusts it in his grip. If I wasn’t currently concerned about my wellbeing, I might have rolled my eyes.

I charge at the hunter and he sidesteps me, shoving my shoulder in an attempt to throw me off balance. He blocks when I take another swing in his direction. I take the chance to go on the full offensive, forcing the hunter to back off towards the living room.

I have the advantage when it comes to strength but he’s quick. He continues to block each blow smoothly as if he already knows every move I’m going to make a mere second before I do it.

It’s fucking infuriating.

This hunter was nothing like the others I had come into contact with. Most were hardly worthy of the title. The select few good enough to have their names known among the demons were feared and information on them was scarce. It was difficult to learn a hunter’s tricks when the guys who ran into them ended up dead and onlooker recounts were shitty at best.

For a hunter to show up, seemingly randomly, with such a strong intent to kill, is setting off all kinds of alarm bells. I try to keep myself in check because getting worked up is going to lead to mistakes that I can’t afford to make.

He swings his blade at my throat and I hop backwards to create some space, stepping further into the living room. It gives me a few seconds to assess the situation. The moonlight streaming in from the sliding glass balcony door allows me to get a better look at the guy. 

The hunter isn’t wearing the traditional Guild uniform, which is odd, but what’s more striking is his jet-black hair and red eyes that almost seem to glow in the darkness. There’s only one clan of people in the entire world with those trademark traits and it’s synonymous with a death sentence.

Initially, I hadn’t really intended to kill the hunter, but hey, things change.

I don’t get a chance to process this realization, or the real danger I’m in, because the hunter charges at me. He catches me on my jaw and I snag the front of his shirt at the same moment he uses his weight to pin me against the wall with his forearm pressed to my throat. I shove at the hunter’s chest and he responds by driving a kunai blade deep into my side.

The pain is sharp and I react immediately. I direct enough chakra behind a kick that it throws the hunter backwards and almost through the opposite wall. It cracks behind the impact and I can’t help but mentally cringe at the loss of my rental deposit. 

As the hunter returns to his feet, I pull out the kunai and the cut is worse than my adrenaline is leading me to believe. There’s sticky blood coating my hand and I hunch over slightly to try and relieve some of the pain. My chakra will heal the wound quickly enough that it won’t be fatal, but because of how deep it is, it’s going to take about an hour.

Time I don’t have.

The hunter unsheathes a sword from his back as I lower myself onto all fours. I can’t kill the hunter with hand-to-hand, he’s reading me too well and dragging this out means he could call for reinforcements. I can’t take multiple hunters plus him. 

Dealing with an Uchiha meant kill them or be killed. 

A growl rips from my throat and my human henge strips away as the hunter quickly moves forward. I stop the first slice of the sword with two of my tails, arching them over my back to protect my neck, swing my third tail to block the next blow, and reach out to grab the hunter’s leg to yank him down to the floor. He falls hard onto his back and uses the position to drive his sandal into my injured side. My movement is sluggish enough that it lands and I buckle forward at the jolt of pain. He rolls out from under me and manages to leap back, narrowly avoiding my claws, which catch the fabric of his shirt and just barely drag across his skin. The sword comes down again and I use one of my tails to wrap around the weapon, ignoring how the blade cuts into the surface, and fling it to the side.

Without his sword, the hunter has no real defense against the additional limbs. It’s working to my advantage but my movements are slow. 

Have I lost more blood than I thought? 

I’m able to physically overwhelm the Uchiha enough to knock him to the floor, making sure his legs are pinned beneath my back paws. He throws a punch and misses. I grab both his forearms and shove them to the floor, digging my claws into his skin.

I can’t speak like this so the only way I can convey my anger is to growl low in his face. The hunter can’t even be bothered to look like his life is in danger. 

It just pisses me off even more. I tighten my grip. 

My vision is starting to darken around the edges. I think it’s just the adrenaline but the room starts to sway.

I’m running out of time. Something’s wrong.

I charge a beast bomb. It’s total overkill but I can’t take any chances. I have to end this now. The chakra gathers in a ball at my maw but my focus is slipping and the inaccuracy of the chakra accumulation causes the bomb to crack and disintegrate.

I don’t understand what’s happening to me. I feel like I’m losing consciousness. I’ve never had this happen before.

The hunter is staring at me, not even trying to take advantage of the distress I’m in. I’m starting to think he planned this from the beginning. If I didn’t feel like my limbs were made of lead, I would have punched him the face.

I sit up, the fucking Uchiha smirks, and my vision goes completely black.

___________________________________________________________________________

The smell of ammonia brings me back to this world and my head snaps up.

So I’m alive, which is pretty fucking surprising.

I don’t recognize where I am but process of elimination leaves only a few options, none of them good. I calm myself and take in the room around me only to be interrupted. 

“We thought you might have actually been dead,” someone says to my left.

I scoff and shift in the seat I’m apparently tied to. The motion causes pain to lance through my side. I don’t understand why the wound hasn’t closed yet. It has to have been over an hour since I was knocked out, more than enough time for it to heal. There’s something wrapped around my neck but I can’t tell what it is. It freaks me out but I try to not let it show on my face.

I look over at the man I’m sharing the room with and continue to not humor his comment with a response.

“I’m Ibiki Morino, the director of the Torture and Interrogation Unit here at the Konoha Hunter’s Guild.” He says it with pride and casually tosses the plastic smelling salts tube onto the table in front of me.

He walks around my chair and it makes me bristle. I don’t like the idea of someone behind me when I can’t defend myself. I try to move and note that the chair is bolted down to the floor. My legs aren’t bound but my hands have been tied and pinned behind my back. Usually, this wouldn’t have been much of an issue but I can’t seem to infuse my chakra properly. 

I’m still trying to process what happened before I blacked out so I decide to start with the most obvious question. “What do you want?”

He steps to my right side, into my view again, and I meet his gaze. The room is small and I assume it’s probably to make Ibiki look even bigger. The guy is intimidating to say the least, especially for a human. I’m not short, but he basically towers over me and the scars on his face seem fitting of his role.

There are some seals painted on the walls in black paint that I recognize, but none of them are strong enough to seal me into the room. One of the walls has a large, frosted square that looks like some kind of one-way mirror.

The fact that this is an interrogation room is obvious, but it’s not clear what I could be being interrogated for. I hadn’t done anything in a long time, and even when I was doing stupid shit, they were pretty low-ball crimes. I’ve managed to stay off the Guild’s radar so sending an Uchiha to bring me in out of the blue means something bigger is going on.

“We’re looking for information,” Ibiki finally answers.

“Do I look like someone who has information?” I snort. “Information about what?”

Ibiki pushes his hands into the pockets of his knee length coat. “About what’s going on in your world.” The confusion must be obvious on my face because he continues. “I’m sure you’ve noticed the increase in demon activity recently. A lot of good hunters are dead. Civilian numbers are on the rise too.”

“What does that have to do with me? Recruit better hunters.” I’m getting defensive but this is already pissing me off.

“You’re an S-class bijuu demon and know absolutely nothing about the recent mobilizations? You’re not involved at all? That’s pretty difficult to believe.” 

“Well believe it. Just because I’m one of them doesn’t mean we’re all fuckin’ friends,” I snap back. The topic is a sore spot. Even among the demons, the bijuu were always feared for their exceptional chakra levels and strengths. 

Too dangerous for the humans, too volatile for the demons.

Ibiki stares and I can’t tell if he doesn’t believe me or he is just coming to the realization that I actually don’t know shit, but it’s making me antsy. 

He asks me a few more questions that I can’t answer before the door to the interrogation room opens up. I’m half expecting it to be that Uchiha bastard but instead it’s a man who could easily be my grandfather. He’s dressed like he’s important and Ibiki giving him a slight bow reinforces my thought.

“I think we can be straight with Naruto here, Ibiki,” the man begins with a smile. “I’m Hiruzen, the director of the Guild.”

I recognize the name but it doesn’t put my mind at ease. 

“The uptick in demon activity this past year is putting a strain on the resources we have here at the Guild. A lot of hunters have been attacked while on missions and we’re not able to keep up with requests from people in and outside of the city. Civilians are losing faith in the Guild as casualties are on the rise.” There’s remorse in his voice and it sounds genuine. 

I tend to keep to myself but it would be a complete lie to say I haven’t noticed to shift in attitude among the demons. Everyone seemed a bit more tense and aggressive. I had almost ended up in a few fights myself. I hadn’t realized it was affecting the Guild and the humans as much as Hiruzen was leading on. 

“So, what do you want from me?” I ask, looking between the two Guild members. My shoulders are stiff.

“Your cooperation. Having your strength on our side will help us work through some of these issues with more confidence. This is only the beginning and we fully expect things to get worse. We’re trying to avoid outright war and stabilize the city while we can.”

Despite it appearing like they’re asking for my help, I know I don’t really have a say in the matter. They brought me here for a use and I’m not sure what they’ll do if I refuse to cooperate.

I’ve gotten my fair share of upturned noses and bad attitudes from the humans of Konoha but I wouldn’t wish harm on anyone. This was my city as much as theirs and though I might be a demon, it was still my home. 

“There has to be another reason. You obviously have some skilled hunters.” My earlier loss still stings. “What can I do that they can’t?”

“Not only are you a massive asset to our military power, you’re also a bridge to the other side of things. You can provide a perspective and a position that the hunters can’t access,” Ibiki says and Hiruzen nods in agreement, rubbing his beard. “It’s an advantage we’ve never had before.”

Considering the options that I (don’t) have, not cooperating will make my life a lot harder than the alternative. The Guild wasn’t known for keeping pets, it was likely I’d end up killed or locked up. I’m not completely opposed to helping, I’m just not happy about the route they went about it. They can butter me up all they want. It doesn’t change the fact that I was brought here against my will.

“So you guys decided that, instead of asking me, you had a hunter break into my apartment, kidnap me, and then force me into working with you? That was the best method?”

“You wouldn’t have come otherwise,” Hiruzen answers immediately and I make a face because he’s right. “I’ll assume you’re open to cooperating, which is a wise decision. Ibiki will give you more information.” He gives a smile I don’t trust and heads back out of the room, leaving me with the interrogator.

It starts to settle over me that my life as I knew it is basically over. Ichiraku is going to struggle without their main source of income. Kind of depressing, really. 

“I doubt you guys are going to slap a hunter badge on me and call it a day. So what are you planning?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Ibiki says and sits down on the table in front of me. He’s more in my space than I’m comfortable with but I don’t move away. “You will be assigned to another hunter as their partner. Together you will take on the more important, higher ranking missions we don’t have the personnel for currently.”

That seemed dangerous for the hunter. What was to stop me from switching sides and killing them during a mission? There was no way for them to assure my loyalty. 

Ibiki must have followed my thought process because he leans forward and tugs on whatever is wrapped around my neck. I can’t see it, but it’s clear I have a collar of some kind. 

It might have been possible to hear the lightbulb in my brain click on.

“It’s a chakra blocker,” I say slowly. Ibiki smirks like he’s proud of me for figuring it out all on my own.

“Correct. The collar is a new invention from the Hunter Tools Group, made specially for you. We have full control over how much chakra you have access to at any given time. So let go of any ideas you might have had.”

I knew something wasn’t right when I woke up. The inability to infuse my chakra properly and this damn stab wound not healing. With the collar on, I’m hardly few steps above a human. They can’t block my chakra completely, or they’d risk killing me, but they were obviously keeping it set very low.

Impressive piece of technology. I hadn’t realized they even developed things like this. 

I just really wish it wasn’t wrapped around my neck. 

I have a renewed sense of anxiety and I’m dreading that Ibiki will continue to question me about shit I don’t know. But instead, he says they’re going to redress my side and get me initiated into the Guild. He unbinds my hands and uses a piece of cloth to break a few of the painted seals on the wall. They must have significant confidence in the collar because the interrogator doesn’t seem to have a worry in the world as we exit the room. It’s kind of offensive.

The Guild is nicer on the inside than I could have imagined. I’ve only ever seen the building in passing. It was basically asking for trouble getting too close and hunters could be real assholes. 

The walk from interrogation room to the medical wing doesn’t give me a good grasp on the layout of the place. However, it becomes clear that T&I is deep in the basement. I know this because I have to bite my tongue every time the cut works open while I’m walking up the four flights of stairs.

I’m not looking forward to being surrounded by hunters. Humans could be rude enough but hunters were on a whole different level. I’ve spent my entire life growing a thick skin but these people have actual weapons and intent. With my chakra blocked, I’m basically fucked.

I don’t know if cooperating was the right decision but it seems like the Guild values me more alive than not. For now, that works to my advantage and, if I can bide my time, I can get out of here. As nice as they’re trying to make this arrangement sound, I’m basically an attack dog and being viewed as a weapon doesn’t exactly make me feel bubbly.

From how Ibiki spoke, it sounded like they had a hunter already assigned to me. I can’t help but be curious who it is. I already have a feeling, but I’m going to pretend to be ignorant until otherwise.

At least the woman who greets me at the medical wing is nice. She’s much better company than Ibiki, who promptly leaves without a word after delivering me.

Initially, she seems wary about getting close but after a few comments about her pink hair she warms up and focuses on her work. Even with my chakra levels lower, the wound should heal in the next day or two at the most. A few stitches and a new round of bandages should stop me from bleeding every time I lean over until then.

“Is there anywhere else you’re hurt?” She asks, giving me a concerned look. I almost melt under the kindness. It’s such a nice change of pace, even if it’s potentially fake.

I touch my cheek, remembering how I just managed to save myself from a kunai to the skull, but it seems to have been light enough to heal during the fight with the hunter. 

“Nothin’ else, Sakura.” I say with a smile and she returns it.


	2. Sasuke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke gets a new partner.

“If you think I’m working with him, you’re out of your mind,” I snap.

The Guild director and his right-hand man are sitting in front of me at their long desk. The office is spacious but it’s difficult to tell with how many books and scrolls are littered around the room. The Guild insignia stands proud on a large banner behind them and the mid-morning light streams through the windows circling the walls of the round room. There are a few more seats for the elders but they’re empty, thankfully. 

I’m familiar with the space. I’m often called to the director’s room because higher-ranking missions are dealt by him personally. However, I’m not familiar with Danzo, who rarely leaves the side of his elite hunter group.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter. You’re the only one who’s able to handle him if the collar were to fail,” Danzo replies. His voice is always so calm. It’s annoying as hell.

I look to Hiruzen for help, but he closes his eyes and sighs like he’s dealing with a petulant child. There’re a few moments of silence before he stands slowly and shuffles over to me, pausing to my left with his hands behind his back. I refuse to look in his direction. 

“Sasuke, we need his help. Getting deeper into their network is the only way to find out what they’re planning, and he’s the key to doing that. Their strength is increasing, and by having him on our side, we’ve already tipped the scale in our favor. I’m sure you can understand.” Hiruzen gives me a look and I meet his sidelong glance with my own. “You will work with him.” The authority in his voice has a sense of finality. It’s no longer up for discussion, not that it really was to begin with.

Hiruzen continues to the door behind me, and without turning around I ask, “Where are you going?”

“To meet our new recruit. I don’t want Ibiki going too hard on him.” The door clicks shut after he exits the room.

I cross my arms loosely over my chest and direct my attention back to Danzo. I never liked the guy. It always seems like he’s hiding something. I don’t trust the man any farther than I can spit.

“It’s impressive that you managed to bring him in with only minor injuries. Uchiha were always incredibly talented.”

I don’t respond and, for whatever reason, Danzo takes that as an invitation to continue. It irritates me that he talks so freely about my clan, whether it be good or bad. 

“If it had been anyone else, they would have been killed.”

“We both know that’s not the only reason you had me track him down,” I say.

“Your skills are needed to keep him in control.”

“I can’t control him with the Sharingan, you know that.” I can use my eyes to influence demons so long as they look directly into the Sharingan. However, the stronger the demon, the shorter the amount of time I can influence them. It can range from hours, to minutes, to a few seconds.

I didn’t get a chance to use it on the fox during our fight, but I don’t think it would have helped. With his insane chakra reserves, my hold wouldn’t have lasted more than a couple seconds. Sometimes that’s enough to win an advantage, though. 

“Yes, but it still makes you difficult for him to navigate. It’s a shame we don’t have any more Mangekyo users, then we wouldn’t have to reason with the demon.” Danzo adjusts his grip on the walking stick in his lap. “Hiruzen seems to believe giving him some freedom will make him more willing to work with us, but sometimes straight control is better. He’s a tool, after all.”

“And if that freedom leads to him attacking me or another hunter?” I ask. 

“Use your Sharingan on him if you feel it's necessary, but this would be a wasted effort if you killed him. However, he will heal from most all other damage you may inflict.”

___________________________________________________________________________

I take my time as I head down to the medical wing to retrieve the demon fox.

I’m dreading everything about this assignment. There’s no reason one of the others couldn’t handle him with suppressed chakra. I don’t want to deal with him. I don’t want to work with him. And I don’t want anything to do with Hiruzen’s plan.

I don’t like demons. 

Actually, I hate them.

I understand the strategic move of having the fox on our side. It makes sense to take away one of their strongest players, but there has to be more to it. It doesn’t take a genius to realize there’s something bigger going on, something beyond the scope of what we can currently handle. The Guild barely made it through the previous war and that was still with massive causalities. It’s been over twenty years since there’s been any unrest among the demons, but nothing stays peaceful forever. 

Hiruzen and Danzo must have more information than they’re leading on. It leaves me more in the dark than I’m comfortable with, and I’m the one stuck babysitting a demon. It’s irritating that I’m supposed to drag the thing around by the leash for god knows how long. 

I reach the medical wing and am greeted by Shizune at the front desk. She leads me down a hallway and around a corner, taking me to the room the fox is currently in. I absently wonder how he’ll respond to meeting the person who stabbed him in the stomach a few hours ago. I don’t care much. 

Shizune leaves to return to the front desk, and I slide open the door to the room. “Oh, Sasuke, we were waiting for you,” Sakura says with a smile. Is she just sitting in here having casual conversation with a demon?

I ignore her and immediately lock gaze with the fox. The tension in the room skyrockets. He glares at me and I glare right back. 

My fingers twitch for my sword. Hiruzen’s plan be dammed, I’ll kill this demon if he tries something.

I refuse to be the first person to break and it seems he feels similarly because it takes Sakura physically blocking my line of sight for us to stop the measuring contest.

“Stop it, Sasuke. You too, Naruto,” she says steadily.

“I fuckin’ knew it,” the fox complains.

“Knew what?” Sakura asks, thankfully stepping out of the way so I can return to glaring.

“The old man, he said I was going to have to work with one of the hunters. I knew it was gonna be this asshole.”

“Rather be an asshole than a total idiot,” I throw back. I have no idea why I’m even entertaining him. The guy just gets under my skin. “I thought you were supposed to be dangerous.”

The fox stands up off the hospital bed, walking towards me. I stand my ground, fingers playing at the hilt of my sword. Sakura steps between us when he gets within a couple feet of me, putting her hands on each of our chests.

“More dangerous than you. None of your bullshit tricks this time.”

“Hm. Can the fox fight with his collar on? Looks like you’re not healing too well.”

“Stop, both of you!” Sakura barks and tries harder to push us apart as we both take half a step forward.

“With or without the collar, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Give me a reason. Please, give me a fucking reason.” Honestly, I would love an excuse to drive my sword through his chest.

“Enough!” Sakura shouts and punches the fox in the cheek. She turns on me to do the same but I catch her fist before it connects with my face. She yanks her hand away. “You both are absolutely ridiculous! How are you supposed to work together if you can’t even be in the same room? You’re like two children!”

The fox rubs his cheek and looks slightly bewildered at Sakura. I don’t blame him. Sakura’s punches hurt.

“Whatever. Be at the front desk in two minutes, or I’m leaving,” I say as I turn and walk back out of the room. 

I return to the front area of the hospital wing where Shizune is at the desk working on some paperwork. She doesn’t attempt to speak to me, which is great, and I look at the clock on the wall because I’m dead serious about those two minutes. 

The fox shows up with twenty-three seconds to spare and Sakura in tow. 

“Please don’t kill each other,” she pleads, exasperated. “Be careful with your stitches, Naruto.” The fox smiles sheepishly and rubs the back of his neck. “Right. Thanks, Sakura.”

I walk away from them without a word and start heading towards the elevator. It’s not remotely close to my job description to show a new “recruit” around, but I’ll get chewed out by Hiruzen if I don’t.

I step inside the elevator and press the button, not bothering to wait, and the fox has to jog to catch up and slip in before the doors shut. 

He shoots me a look that I completely ignore as the elevator begins to move.

After a few moments of silence, he says, “You poisoned me, didn’t you?”

“Hm.” I had wondered if he’d figured it out. 

Being a jonin hunter means that I’m assigned the higher ranking missions. I take on B, A, and S-ranks, with the latter being less common. Anything ranked lower than B is a complete waste of my skillset. But even then, being handed a mission scroll with a request for capturing a bijuu demon had caught me off guard.

Naruto Uzumaki, the infamous nine-tailed demon fox, had a file with a lot of information but nothing actually useful. He had gotten in trouble when he was younger for stupid things: stealing from convenience stores, vandalism, fights. Nothing worth noting. The crimes dropped off as he got older, but in none of these instances had he ever displayed much of his power. All demons had chakra, but the amount that the fox possessed was mostly speculation.

To a hunter, an empty file means a dangerous mission. An empty file on an S-rank means a suicide mission.

To make it worse, capture missions were always difficult. There’s a fine line between doing enough damage to incapacitate someone but not kill them. Fighting without the true intent to kill is hard, especially when the other party is doing just that.

I’d never admit it, but the demon had been more powerful than I anticipated. In the end, my planning and preparedness had won me the advantage. Every blade I walked into that apartment with had been dipped in an odorless poison. I wonder how differently the fight might have went otherwise. 

I’m one of the best hunters to ever walk through this Guild, and I almost lost a fight with an idiot fox.

It’s fucking infuriating.

I resist the urge to rub at the bandaged claw cuts on my forearms. I plan to learn everything about this fox while we’re stuck together. I’ve long surpassed the other hunters at the Guild. The fox has become my new benchmark. 

The elevator dings and I step out, heading down the hallway and towards the armory. It’s still early enough in the morning that the Guild hasn’t started getting busy yet. We pass a few other hunters as we walk and they do a double take at the fox. I doubt they recognize who he actually is, but it’s bizarre to see a person walking around this area of the Guild wearing civilian clothes.

The armory is a wide open room with tons of shelves, each stacked with equipment, and a wall of racks for different kinds of weapons. The room is a bit of a mess but it seems to suit the environment. At the back is a locked area cut off by a large countertop and chain link fence that stretches to the ceiling. The hunter that runs the place is old, grizzled, and hardly speaks. I’d be lucky to get two whole grunts out of him.

As I approach the counter, the man ignores me in favor of watching the fox, who is standing behind me looking around at all the tools. “New hunter, needs all the startup gear,” I say. The hunter waves me out of the way and I take a step to the side to give him a better view of the fox. “This him, huh? Hiruzen told me you were coming,” he replies gruffly. I can’t recall if I’ve ever heard his voice before. 

The demon turns his attention to us and pauses, seemingly uncomfortable that we’re both staring at him. It’s hard to believe that this guy is known as one of the most dangerous demons in existence. All that power and chakra contained in some blue-eyed, baby-faced guy that looks no older than twenty-five. 

The armorer taps his fist on the counter a few times with a grunt before turning and heading back into the rows of shelves and boxes behind him. 

When news gets out about the fox being in the Guild, it’s going to spread like wildfire. I wouldn’t expect most of the hunters to be too keen on the idea of a demon roaming free within the building, let alone being inducted into the ranks. I can’t say I blame them. I don’t want him here either, but the mission comes before my feelings on the matter.

“Your face is going to get stuck like that, y’know,” the fox says to me.

“What?”

“Like,” he imitates what I’m assuming is my current facial expression, frowning, knitting his eyebrows together, and puts a hand on his hip. “All broody. What’s your problem?”

“You,” I snap as I walk away and head down one of the aisles of shelves and the fox scoffs. 

I’m not broody.

Stupid fox.

While I wait, I walk towards the maintenance tools and pick up a sharpening stone off one of the shelves. This is only the second time I’ve ever stepped foot in this armory. I don’t buy anything from here as there’s a supply shop that provides weapons to my family outside of Konoha. I also don’t wear the Guild uniform. The one I was issued upon starting here is still sitting on the top shelf of my closet. 

I run my fingers over the cool stone before putting it down. The fox comes up beside me with an armful of uniform pieces and a weapons pouch placed on top.

___________________________________________________________________________

Capturing the demon had only been part of the mission. The second part detailed how I would go about taking custody of said fox indefinitely. He was my responsibility for as long as he was useful to the Guild. This mission had no expiration or completion date.

I was basically forced to adopt a dog. I don’t like dogs. 

It’s almost comical that the fox literally has a collar on. 

Hiruzen has given me full control over the device. I could completely suppress his chakra, killing him, or lessen the restrictions to give him more access to his reserves. All of this functionality is provided by a simple-looking black band on my wrist. 

I have more power over him than I initially expected, and I know the fox realizes this too. 

He was stuck between a rock, a hard place, and me. Cooperation was really his only option. The opportunities for escape were slim in his suppressed state, and it’s unlikely that he’d make it very far, especially with me stuck keeping an eye on him at all times.

Which meant during the day and night.

Meaning that I now have a roommate I didn’t ask for.

I unlock the door to my apartment, which is just a couple blocks away from the main Guild complex. There are places available on site, but the thought of working and living at the Guild sounds like utter shit. The apartment belonged to my late brother, and moving his stuff would have been a pain anyways.

It feels completely wrong to let the fox inside. It was my brother’s space, it’s my space, and it feels like a straight violation for him to be standing in it.

Nothing particularly against the fox. I hate all demons equally. I wonder if Hiruzen is doing this just to spite me for being difficult sometimes.

The fox stands awkwardly in the center of the small and tidy living room, looking around with all the gear he picked up at the armory still in his arms. It irritates me.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“What am I supposed to do?” 

“Get changed, obviously. You’re going back to the Guild for initiation and to see Hiruzen. Bathroom’s on the left.” 

The fox mutters something under his breath about me being an ass before walking off towards the bathroom. I cross my arms over my chest and lean back against the kitchen countertop. 

This has to be one of the worst assignments I’ve ever been given. I’m not looking forward to working with and living with a demon. His presence sets off all kinds of alarm bells, and even having him in my apartment, suppressed chakra or not, has me on edge. I don’t understand the purpose in providing him with so much freedom within the Guild, or why they’re deciding to treat him like a hunter. Like a human. 

Hiruzen is protecting him for some reason. I would like to know why.

It’s important that I use these missions as a chance to find out more information, not just for the Guild, but for myself. The fox has to have more information than he realizes. At the very least, he might be a good connection to point me in the right direction. I’ve never been able to find out what exactly happened to my clan during the previous war. I would love to end the demons responsible.

When the fox returns to the living room, he has his old clothes in his hands and starts to fold them haphazardly on the back of my couch. His shirt has blood on it so I hope it was completely dry before it touched the fabric. 

I’ve never spent so much time this casually close to a demon. They are common in society, enough to run into them regularly, but I don’t interact with them if I can avoid it. If I didn’t know any better, I could have easily assumed the fox was a human. The thin markings on his face help give it away, but people do weird shit to their appearance all the time.

I activate my Sharingan and watch the fox fold his clothes. Through the Sharingan, I can see a demon's chakra and get a better sense of the type of demon they are. The chakra hovers around them, like an aura of sorts. The stronger the demon, the more intense the chakra around them is. The fox’s chakra is deep red and thick. Even with the collar on, I can tell how powerful he is. 

It’s a little eerie to watch the demon fox do such a mundane task , especially since the last time I saw him, he was trying to kill me. I can vaguely make out his form through the Sharingan, but it’s not as clear as if he were to drop the henge entirely.

In his true form, the demon’s skin seems to be shrouded in a layer of dark red and black chakra that shifts as he moves. He retains some traits that remind me of a fox, but he appears humanoid, standing on two legs with long limbs and a mostly-human head shape. His foxlike ears stand tall on his head and his eyes and mouth glow white against the dark chakra layer. In a weird way, it reminds me of a jack-o-lantern, right down to the jagged teeth. Instead of the three tails I saw previously, only one swishes slowly behind him, indicating he’s at his base state. All that bottled up into a normal looking guy.

It’s creepy as hell.

“Can I just leave these here?” the fox asks, motioning absently to his clothes. I deactivate my Sharingan and his human appearance returns, unruly blond hair and all. The clothes are ruined, so they might as well just go into the trash, but he doesn’t have anything else currently.

I nod, standing up off the counter. “We’re heading back.”


	3. Naruto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto goes on his first mission.

I’ll probably regret thinking this, but honestly I don’t mind being part of the Guild. I might even like it.

I’ve always wanted to be a hunter. I wanted to do something for the city. Something that’s better than my average, boring job. I wanted to help people and demons alike. Maybe if I could get on everyone’s good side, there wouldn’t be such a divide between us and the humans. An example of sorts. Or maybe even a bridge, like Hiruzen said.

I want to be more than what everyone thought of me as. More than just some nuisance monster. More than just "the demon fox."

Despite being forced into this position, it gives me something to focus and work on. I’m not one to half-ass anything, and I’ve already set my sights on being one of the best hunters here.

Apparently, that position is already taken by my new partner, but that won’t last much longer.

Initiation had taken a few days. I was placed in with a group of hunters that were on the tail end of finishing their courses. The recruits were required to be in training for a few years before graduating and being promoted to a hunter position. There isn’t time for me to sit through all of that, so a hunter with a short ponytail and a scar on his nose tried to dump as much information as possible on me in under a week. Academics isn’t my strong suit and I only retained like ten percent of what he said. He seemed to take pity on me and gave Hiruzen the okay that I’m clear to join Sasuke on his next mission. I think I already have enough experience with demons to make up for the lost class time.

I might not know everything there is to know about the Guild and all its rules, but I do know how to fight. Sasuke should be happy to have such a great recruit on his team. I graduated in record time, after all.

Then again, Sasuke’s range of personality seems to consist of asshole to bigger asshole. If I’ve learned anything about Sasuke lately, it’s that he’s one of the most frustrating people to be around. 

Since I’ve been in the Guild introductory sessions, we haven’t been around each other unless we’re at his apartment. He doesn’t talk much, and when he does, he’s usually insulting me about something or just being a general buzzkill. I'd say I’m not sure how anyone stands being around him, but it sounds like he pushes everyone away that tries. Guess I have the record in that as well.

It’s been a little over a week since Sasuke showed up at my apartment, and today we're going to be assigned our first mission. I’m excited to go on an assignment and try out being a hunter, even if it’s with my moody partner.

I stand in the bathroom and change into the Guild uniform I was given. I’ve been wearing it all week and I’ve started to feel pretty comfortable in it. The pants and long sleeve shirt are both dark blue and I’ve been rolling up the sleeves a bit. To wear over it, they gave me a flat, green chest guard that reaches past my waist and has a high collar. I have a few weapon pouches but I’m completely unfamiliar with using a kunai blade. When I finished the courses, they gave me a headband with the Guild symbol on it as well. 

It’s proof to everyone that the demon fox is officially a hunter.

Among the armor was a red armband that I’ve seen some of the other hunters wearing. But, instead of the swirled, circular symbol, mine has a simplified fox head. 

Well, it would have been wishful thinking to not get singled out at least a little bit. As if the thick, black collar wasn’t a clear enough indicator. 

I spent two hours last night trying to find a way to get it off and deemed it impossible. I can’t find a way to break the buckle and I don’t know enough about how it works to risk cutting it off. Because the collar has control over my chakra, I have to assume that it can easily kill me.  
I have to assume Sasuke can easily kill me. 

Not the most comforting thought to have about my partner.

I step out of the bathroom and Sasuke is waiting for me in the living room. “Let’s go,” he says. I nod and follow him out of the apartment.

___________________________________________________________________________

When we reach the Guild director's office, Hiruzen is waiting for us along with another man I don’t recognize. His forehead and right eye are covered with bandages and he stands towards the back of the room. There’s something about him that makes me uneasy but I can’t put my finger on it.

I haven’t seen Hiruzen since the first day I started the hunter training. I’ve managed to learn a bit more about him since being around some of the other recruits. Apparently, he’s been the director for a super long time. The director who had replaced him ended up dying in the previous war and he retook the position, which explains why he’s so old. It seems like many of the hunters have a lot of respect for him. I haven’t decided how I feel about him, but I don’t dislike him. After all, he’s the reason I’m not currently sitting in a cage.

“Right on time,” Hiruzen says as he steps around the long desk, walking over to us. “Hopefully you’ve been settling in, Naruto?”

“For the most part.”

“Good, then I’ll get straight to it. Due to the nature of this arrangement, I will be handling all missions that are assigned to your team. You will report directly back to me upon completion.” Hiruzen hands a scroll over to Sasuke, who takes it and pauses.

“This is a C-rank,” Sasuke says like the scroll directly offends him. “I thought we were doing special operations?” 

“Not for your first mission as a team. You’ve never worked with a partner before and this is Naruto’s first day as a hunter. Sending you right into the thick of things would be ill-advised.”

Sasuke stares at Hiruzen like he’s considering arguing, but must have decided against it because he breaks the seal, opening up the scroll. I step a little closer to read over his shoulder. My curiosity is killing me.

The scroll details a request from a human woman who owns a convenience store towards the south side of Konoha. The south side is more demon-dominated than the rest of the city, but humans still live in the area. It looks like there’s a demon who’s been harassing her, stealing from the store, and—Sasuke closes the scroll before I get to the end. I narrow my eyes at him, which he ignores, and he tucks the scroll away in the front of his purple obi.

“Simple enough? Report in by the end of today.”

Sasuke turns and exits the room. I offer a slight goodbye wave to Hiruzen and follow after Sasuke as we head out of the Guild complex.

___________________________________________________________________________

It’s nice to be outside again, and I pause to stretch my arms over my head as we step outside of the complex gate. Sasuke continues on ahead and I catch back up with him as we make our way to the south side of the city.

I have no idea what classifies as a simple hunter mission, but this one seems pretty straightforward. There are many types of demons, but only a few types possess a significant amount of chakra. However, any amount is usually enough to pose a threat to a human without proper training, and that’s where the Guild comes in. It’ll be difficult to gauge how strong the demon is without knowing the type. The woman didn’t provide that information in the report.

Either way, it shouldn’t be anything I can’t handle. Not that I’m one to brag, but I’m pretty much at the top of the food chain when it comes to demons.

As far as I know, I’m the only bijuu demon in this city. There’re rumors that more of my type exist in other areas, but I’ve never come into contact with them. I wonder how they live in their own cities and if they’re treated any differently than myself. I strongly doubt it.

I haven’t been treated any better by the hunters since becoming part of the Guild. They're tolerant, for sure, but I can tell they aren’t happy about me being in their space. Or my general existence for that matter. I don’t know if it’ll get better, but I’ve grown a thick skin over the years.

On the other hand, I seem to be getting a much better response from the humans, especially on the street. If I would have known the hunter uniform held this much power, I might have stolen one to wear years ago. It’s obvious that the hunters are well respected by the people. Not that anyone is throwing themselves at us. It’s just nice to not see someone whisper or move their kid away when I walk by. I have low standards.

It’s not like I look outwardly like a demon, at least not in my opinion. Some don’t have the best ability to create a henge and traits can leak through, but I always thought mine was solid. Must be something about my face. 

Sasuke doesn’t seem to care for the attention he receives for being a hunter. I don’t think he cares for much, actually. He basically has the words “fuck off” plastered on his forehead, and I’ve taken it as a personal challenge to do exactly the opposite.

“So, how does this usually work?” I ask, finally breaking the silence we’ve had since we started walking.

“How does what work?” 

I roll my eyes. “The mission? Like I’m guessing we’re going to see the lady, but what about after?”

“We’ll see what information we can get out of her. People don’t always put everything in the assignment request. Once we find out what we can, we go after the demon and you stay out of my way.”

“I think that defeats the purpose of working as a team.”

“I didn’t ask what you thought.”

I push my hands into my pants pockets and sigh in mild irritation. I can’t imagine why he’s never had a partner before. No idea.

At least it’s fairly nice outside. Warm with only a few clouds that pass over, blocking the sun out for a few moments before moving on. The city starts to get busy, so we break off from the main route to take some of the backways to the job location.

It would be a lot faster if I took the rooftops, but without my chakra in control it sounds like a solid way to break my neck.

The convenience store stands at the edge of the imaginary line that denotes the south side of the city. The area is rougher compared to around the Guild complex, and it shows most obviously in the state of the infrastructure. 

There are a few groups standing around outside of the store who leave as we approach. A couple individuals stay around in the alleyways, eyes on us as we walk into the store. Despite a majority of them being demons, Sasuke pays them no mind.

Demons are common, but I wouldn’t normally see this many in an area together. While it’s not visually obvious, I can sense their chakra. I can sometimes tell by smell as well. Demons have this underlying smoky, burnt scent that stands out. It’s hard to pick up on who it’s coming from when there’re a lot of people around though, so it’s not very reliable. 

From what I can sense, none of these demons have a significantly high amount of chakra, which narrows down the potential types we could be dealing with. It’s likely they can tell that I’m also a demon, but with my chakra dampened, they probably don’t view me as much of a threat.

“Oh, thank god you guys finally got to my request!” an old woman says from behind the counter as the door jingles shut behind us. She comes around to meet us with a smile. “My husband’s had to stay home for a few months and isn’t able to come in. So I’ve taken over.” I wonder how long she’s been waiting for the request to be fulfilled.

“Do you have any useful information about the demon who’s been harassing you?” Sasuke asks, getting right to it.

“Well, he usually comes by later in the night to ask for money. Sometimes he takes some stuff from the store. I don’t have the means to stop him,” she says and wrings her hands together. “He said if I contacted you he would come after me next but I wasn’t sure what else to do.”

“That doesn’t remotely help us,” Sasuke replies.

“I don’t know what else to say. Are you able to help me? What if he sees you two have shown up and comes after me tonight? He might kill me.”

“Woah, hey, we won’t let that happen. I promise.” I offer a smile. “We just need to hear as much as we can. We’ll get it figured out no matter what.”

I shoot Sasuke a look and he turns away pointedly. People skills aren’t his strong suit, apparently. No wonder he doesn't deal with these types of missions. Guess I’ll handle this part.

“When he threatened you, did he do anything to you? Change form or anything?” I try to think about traits that I use to identify demons. “Like maybe you saw his teeth?”

The old woman looks at the floor and thinks for a moment before nodding. “Yes. Yes, actually. He had fangs and also claws on his hands. I thought I saw his eyes change too but I’m not sure. I’m sorry.”

“Probably a shifter,” Sasuke says. I nod in agreement.

“He said if I didn’t give him money he’ll destroy the store until I do. So I’ve been giving him some of the till when he comes by. It’s made things hard for us at home.”

Situations like this are why my kind are so hated among the humans. All it takes is one demon to be a dick to someone and that person hates demons forever. They teach their friends and family to hate them, and the cycle just continues and continues. Revenge can run through generations. I can be the best person in the world and still be hated for what I am. I’m not sure if this woman would even be speaking to me if she knew.

“Don’t worry. We can handle this no problem. We’re not going anywhere until we fix this,” I assure her, and the lady smiles up at me.

“Thank you so much. What should I do for the time being?”

“Go about your day like normal. We will keep watch and intervene if he shows up,” Sasuke answers her.

She nods again and thanks us both before returning to the counter. Sasuke and I step out of the store and onto the main walkway. A cat creeps around the chalkboard sign that’s outside of the convenience store. I crouch down and click my tongue to get its attention. It steps over to sniff my hand but Sasuke coming to stand next to me scares it off. 

“We should wait and see if he shows up tonight. It sounds like he’s gotten comfortable and comes by fairly often. We’ll deal with him then,” Sasuke says.

“It could also be a drainer. They usually have fangs.”

“A lot of demons have fangs. I don’t think a drainer would mess with a convenience store owner. They tend to be more organized, and this is a pretty small crime. It’s definitely a shifter.”

I stand back up and nod. “I’ve dealt with some shifters before but it really depends on what they change into.”

Shifter is slang for any animal hybrid-type demon. Each one can shapeshift into a different type of animal. Some can simply turn into the animal itself, while some can develop more exaggerated versions of the traits, kind of like werewolves. They’re a fairly common demon type. Nothing that dangerous.

Sasuke and I leave the store and decide to set up watch on one of the nearby rooftops. We’ve got a few hours until it’s dark, and I’m sure he’ll show up.

___________________________________________________________________________

About two hours after the sun sets, the streets start becoming a lot more active and we have a difficult time determining who’s just shopping and who’s being shady. Sasuke has been using his Sharingan to keep watch, but many of the people below us are demons and he can’t single anyone out.

I’m starting to get bored and antsy. I thought being a hunter was going to be a lot more fun, and now we’ve just been sitting around on a roof for a few hours. 

“Is it always like this?” I ask Sasuke. "Boring as hell, I mean." I wish the demon would show up just to give us something to do. I can’t even help Sasuke identify anyone from this far up. There’re too many people for me to single out anyone as a demon from chakra alone.

“Stop being childish,” he says. 

I sit up and cross my legs under me, resting my chin on my hand. “That didn’t answer the question, like at all.”

“Shut up.”

“Quit tellin’ me to shut up.”

“Shut up, you idiot fox. Look.” He motions with his chin down below us and I lean forward to look over the edge of the roof. 

Coming down the walkway is a guy with his hands shoved into his pockets and his hood up. He’s alone and walks with purpose towards the convenience store, head down like he’s hiding his face. Usually I would say it’s not fair to judge someone, but he does look pretty suspicious. 

He walks straight into the store and we wait a few moments before Sasuke starts leaping from ledge to ledge to get down to the walkway. I jump straight down and immediately regret my decision, hitting the ground hard in the alleyway and rolling to soften the blow. It’s pretty ungraceful and I stand back up immediately to avoid looking completely stupid. 

Chakra. I keep forgetting about the stupid collar. I’m going to hurt myself if I keep using my body like I’m used to being able to. I’m probably going to feel that fall tomorrow. 

Sasuke lands much more fluidly in front of me and heads right for the store. It’s better that we catch him in the act and take him into custody from there instead of causing a scene on the street.

Sasuke pushes open the door and the demon freezes, standing at the counter with a handful of cash. The demon realizes who we are, and shoves the money into his pants pocket. He takes off towards the back of the store to the emergency exit. Sasuke chases after him. I exit out the way we came in to make my way around to the back to intercept him. 

The store shares its walls with two others so I have to run back down the street and around the corner to enter the alleyway from the side. I hear two sets of footfalls coming my way. I wait until they’re close enough and throw myself around the corner, knocking square into the demon with my weight. We grapple for control and I pin him against a wall, gripping the front of his hoodie. Sasuke is beside me in an instant and unsheathes his sword. 

The demon struggles, then his skin and body start to shift. His face begins to morph, and the sight grosses me out enough that I let go and jump backwards away from him. I’m expecting a werewolf, but all that’s left of the guy is a pile of clothes on the ground. 

“What the fuck?” 

Sasuke seems just as confused and brings his sword to the clothes carefully, poking the hoodie and moving it out of the way. The second the hoodie shifts, a cat bolts out from under the pile and takes off down the alleyway. 

“Shit,” Sasuke snaps as he chases after the cat. 

I quickly snatch up the demon’s discarded pants and fish around for the money before following after Sasuke.

I’m usually not this slow, and by slow, I mean I’m still running at a fast-for-a-human pace. I didn’t realize how much I used my chakra to enhance myself until it was gone. I can’t keep track of the cat at all, but I can keep up with Sasuke. We need to corner him, or we’re going to lose him.

The cat is quick and immediately heads for the more densely crowded shopping area, weaving between people’s feet. The crowd steps out of the way when they see us coming, giving us room. I accidently trip over someone who didn’t move out of the way fast enough and tumble to the ground. The woman keeps apologizing and trying to help me back onto my feet, but it’s getting in my way more than helping. I thank her urgently and untangle myself from her fussy hands. It slows me down long enough that I end up falling behind.

When I catch up to Sasuke, he’s standing two blocks away from the crowd, looking around frantically with the Sharingan. “Sasuke?” I step to his side and he looks at me, then quickly looks away before his eyes lose the red hue.

“Sasuke? Did you lose him?” 

“Fuck,” he growls under his breath. “Yeah, he escaped.”

“Shit.” I run a hand through my hair and let out a steady breath. I can’t believe we managed to screw up our first mission. My first mission. “What do we do?”

There’s no way we can let the cat go. If we don’t stop him, there’s a chance he’ll go after the lady for contacting the Guild. Things might even get worse for her. It’s a possibility he might skip town, scared that the hunters are onto him, but I can’t take that chance. There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep at night knowing that asshole is running around.

I promised that lady that I would complete this mission for her. It doesn’t matter if I have to spend the next week chasing around a stupid cat. I don’t go back on my promises.

Sasuke is silent for a few moments as he scowls at the ground before meeting my gaze. I can tell he feels exactly the same. “We set a trap.”

___________________________________________________________________________

The next morning, Sasuke and I try devise some kind of plan. We have the option of trying to track down the cat, but the city has tons of cats that roam around and plenty of them have a similar color pattern. It could take days before we even got on the right track, and describing a “black-and-white cat” to people isn’t going to get us anywhere.

We stand in one of the neighborhood parks, watching some of the groups of cats lounging around in the sun. Cats like to frequent the park for the free food and attention the families and kids hand out. Not many shifters would wander around in their cat form, but we figured it wouldn’t hurt to check.

“All the ones I can see are normal,” Sasuke says, scanning the park with his Sharingan. “It’s more likely he’s in his human form. It would be easier for him to blend in.”

“Maybe he left the area,” I suggest.

“I doubt it. If he considers this area home, it would be risky for him to leave it.”

“Waiting us out, then?”

“Hm.”

“So, we go back to keeping watch on the roof?” There has to be something more productive we can do than wait for an opportunity. He currently has the upper hand, and we need to get the situation back into our control.

“That’s probably our best bet.” Sasuke says. He’s still watching the cats. “She said he’d be pissed if we got involved. He might go for revenge.”

“Wouldn’t it be risky for him to try and rob her again, though? He has to know we’re still in the area.” 

“We need a way to coax him out.”

I cross my arms over my chest and try to come up with something, but I’m drawing a blank.

There’re a few more moments of silence before Sasuke speaks. “Let’s use the woman from the store as bait.”

“What? No!” I turn to face Sasuke and give him a hard look. “I’m not putting her in front of the stupid cat. What if she gets hurt? She’s already scared of him.” I’m pissed he would even suggest something like that. I’m firm on my stance. It’s not an option. 

He smirks at me. “Then you do it.”

“Come again?”

“You do it. Dress up like her and we’ll use you as bait.”

“You do it! Your hair is longer in the front.”

“You’re shorter. You’ll be covered anyways.”

“We’re the same height! That’s a stupid reason.” He’s literally a single inch taller than me.  
“Shut up! Just do it.”

We glare at each other for a few moments before I cave, rolling my eyes with a sigh. “Fine.” It’s the more dangerous position anyways. It’s only right that I should be the one to do it, of course.

Later that afternoon, we head back to the store to let the lady know what our current plan is. She seems skeptical, but I assure her that it’ll work out. I have full intention of ending this tonight. She lets me borrow one of her jackets and a scarf to help cover up. 

I’m honestly not completely sure that this’ll work, but I can’t think of anything else.

We’re banking mostly on the fact the demon will be pissed enough to follow through on his threat. It’s possible he believes he’s given us the slip, so this would be his best chance to make a move on the store owner. Either way, we don’t currently have a plan C. We’re already a day late in reporting to Hiruzen.

We wait until the normal closing time to see if the demon shows. There’s no sign of him, so we start with the decoy mission. I put on the jacket and scarf and cover up my hair with the hood as much as possible. If someone looked closely, it’s pretty obvious I’m not her, but its dark out and I don’t expect the demon to be cautious enough to double check. She gives me her tan tote bag to help sell the bit and I slouch a little to drop my height more. She waits in the manager’s office at the back of the store while I head out. 

I exit the store and lock the door just as the woman says she does every night. A quick glance to the roof confirms Sasuke is in position to keep watch, and I turn to my left, starting down the walkway. It’s late enough that there aren’t many people out, but I keep to myself to not raise suspicion. 

It’s about a twenty minute walk from the store to where the owner lives. She showed me the path she takes earlier so I could mimic it just in case the demon was perceptive enough to keep an eye on it. I’m not too worried about the demon recognizing me as one from a distance. My chakra is dampened enough that he shouldn’t pick up on it immediately.

The anticipation is making my heart beat fast and my muscles tense, so much so that it takes effort to walk at a normal, leisurely pace. I’m excited for a little confrontation after last night. Just when I think I’m going to make it all the way to this lady’s house, I get a feeling in my gut. I do my best to not immediately turn around, since I’m trying to play a part, but I hate the thought of someone coming up behind me. 

“What did I tell you about calling the hunters?” someone says. I stop in place. I can’t turn around without giving myself away, so I stand still and don’t respond, fingers clenched around the tote bag. 

“Scared? You should be. You closed up before I got there tonight.” He steps closer to me and I bristle. “You owe me. You owe me for those fucking hunters, too.”

Sure is a cocky fucker when he’s not running away from hunters.

He puts a clawed hand on my shoulder, digging in, and I feel him tense up when the realization hits him. I growl low and spin around to face him. He jumps a step back and starts in the opposite direction, but Sasuke drops down from above and cuts off his path. The surprise is evident on his face as he takes a few steps away from Sasuke and we close in on him. He makes an attempt to run but Sasuke quickly grabs his arm and I punch him square in the cheek, hard enough that he falls to the ground. The demon panics and starts to morph again, but Sasuke drives his sword right through his thigh, embedding in the ground. I wince. The demon yelps in pain, reaching to grab at his wounded leg. 

“Move, or shift, and I cut your leg clean off,” Sasuke says. I believe it.

___________________________________________________________________________

Once we have the demon in custody, I return to the shop to give the woman her back her items and the money I retrieved the previous day. She cries and tells me how grateful she is that we came to help and thanks me over and over. I’m starting to blush under the praise.

I’m still beaming when we return to the Guild to report to Hiruzen that night. 

“Congratulations on completing your first mission, Naruto,” he says, and I bow my head slightly in thanks. “The woman who put in the request was very happy with you both. It seems like your first mission as a team went quite well.”

I’m not familiar with how reports go, so Sasuke explains to Hiruzen what happened and why it took us an additional day to complete the mission. It doesn’t seem like Hiruzen cares about us taking more time, but I can tell that it pissed off Sasuke. It must be pretty frustrating to regularly take on S-rank missions and then have some difficulties with a C-rank. Granted, we didn’t prepare ourselves to capture a cat, so I don’t think it’s entirely our fault.

Otherwise, I think everything went relatively well. Sasuke seems to be tolerating me a little more. I hope that we can get along eventually, but he’s difficult to navigate. I don’t know much about him other than he pushes people away and takes being a hunter seriously. 

There had to be more to him, though. No one is that moody all the time.

I want to be the best hunter in the Guild, but figuring out Sasuke is still my first goal. I’ll get through to him eventually. I’m stubborn. He’s stuck with me anyways.

This mission made me finally feel like I have some kind of purpose. Even if the underlying goal is still for me to be a weapon to the Guild, I’m making the most out of it. Instead of constantly thinking about escape, I’m wondering what I could do to find my place here. Maybe if I can get them to change their opinion of me, I can be like any other hunter. Sasuke has an ability of sorts. Maybe being a demon can be seen as similar to that. 

It feels good to be part of something. 

It feels good to not be alone all the time.

On the way back to Sasuke’s apartment, I can’t help but think over everything that happened. The lady thanking me is going to be burned into my memory for the rest of my life. 

I’ve never felt this good about anything.

I think I’m going to enjoy being a hunter.


	4. Sasuke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke is accused of caring.

I would never admit it to his face, but I don’t mind having the fox around as much as I initially thought I would. 

He’s annoying as fuck, don’t get me wrong, but at least he’s decently useful. A lot of the other hunters I’ve dealt with ask too many questions, require me to hold their hand, look to me for everything. It’s exhausting to be around. 

The fox is the opposite. I don’t have to direct every single move he makes. He just does it. I don’t have to babysit him because he can take hits like a rock. I don’t have to hope he’ll make a move. He just does it. He’s unpredictable and it makes him difficult for demons to deal with. We also work decently well in sync and, as the missions go on, it seems to get even better.

Still, I’ll take this to the grave with me. He’d never shut up about it if I said anything.

Since the mission with the cat shapeshifter, we’ve been assigned a handful of C-ranks to get our team more established. C-rank is completely below my pay grade, and I hate doing them, but the ease is mind-numbing and a lot less stressful. 

I can tell the fox is just as sick of them as I am. He often teases about how he thought hunters “did much cooler shit,” and I roll my eyes because nothing about this is “cool.” We’ve cleared out a handful of the C-rank backlog, to the appreciation of the citizens, and the fox drinks up the praise. 

I wonder if they would be so willing to shake his hand, give him a hug, smile at him, if they knew what he really looks like.

I suspect the fox recognizes this as well, because I’ve never seen him use chakra or his abilities while on missions. He has a small amount of chakra at his disposal, not enough to do anything major, but by the way he acts, it’s hard to tell he has any at all.

It’s been about a month since our first mission together, and the fox seems to have settled in better than I would have thought. He’s willing to be part of the Guild and learn what he can about being a hunter. Good for him, I guess. I sure as hell wouldn’t have been this receptive if I were in his shoes. 

I run my hand through my hair, pushing my bangs out of my eyes momentarily as step out of my bedroom. The fox isn’t at his usual spot on my couch where he’s been residing since he got here. My apartment is small, so he’s been using my couch as his bed in the meantime. He hasn’t complained about it. I grab my sword and place it at the back of my obi before finding the fox out on the balcony, sitting on the railing with his legs facing out. 

I slide open the glass door. “We’re going.”

The fox is already in his uniform and looks over his shoulder. “Alright.” 

He turns back to the balcony and I step away back into the apartment, hearing the sliding door close behind me. 

“Wonder what we’ll get today,” he says. 

“Hm.”

“We must’ve cleared out all the C-ranks by now, don’t ya think?” 

We start on the short walk to the Guild complex in comfortable silence and pass through the gate. The fox seems to have gotten on friendly terms with the two gate guards because they wave as we walk through. I’ve never in my life spoken to them and they’ve never waved to me before. I didn’t even know their names until the fox said them the other day, and I’ve been working here for over ten years.

Come to think of it, I could probably only name a handful of hunters at the Guild with the director being one of them.

“You two have been exceeding expectations as a team,” Hiruzen says while facing the window after we enter the room.

The fox stands on my right like he does every time we come to get a mission or report in. Despite how much I try to push him away, he’s become a familiar presence at my side over the past month.

“I think it’s time we start investigating deeper into their network. We’ve recently received some reports that give us the chance to do just that.” Hiruzen turns and picks up one of the scrolls on his desk. He takes a puff from the pipe hanging from his lips and offers me the scroll. The fox is practically vibrating at my side. I’m also looking forward to doing something more challenging. 

The scroll is marked as an A-rank. I swipe my finger under the paper seal to open it up.

I read through the scroll before handing it off to the fox so he’ll stop trying to read over my shoulder. He takes it eagerly and starts to read from the beginning. “How accurate are these reports?” I ask. “It’s unusual for group like this to organize so quickly.”

Hiruzen nods. “I thought the same, but the intel is sound. I’ve had a group of hunters tailing the group for about two weeks. They’ve continued to meet and seem to be attempting to keep it quiet. We’ve not been able to get in close to figure out what they’re planning. They have new additions to the group every few days.”

Mobilization is uncommon among the lower rank demons. We see it more often with drainers and sometimes high-ranking shifters, which tend to be significantly less stupid. The report detailed fae, chupacabra, shifters, and some others. It’s likely there is a higher-ranking demon who is running the cell group. Without gaining more information on who that is and stopping them, the group will continue to operate and get stronger.

We need to do some recon ourselves and figure out our next move from there. I’d usually suggest ending them all and clearing out the problem that way, but I’ve been told that’s not very civil. 

The fox hands the scroll back to me and I nod to the director, accepting the mission. Hiruzen returns to watching out the window and the fox and I take our leave.

The fox has been uncharacteristically quiet while we’ve been walking. I don’t care enough to inquire about it.

The report detailed the last sightings of the group at a restaurant near the southwest of the city. The hunter speculated that this is where they’ve been meeting up. On a seemingly random schedule, they meet later in the evenings for a few hours before dispersing. They’re probably using word of mouth to avoid creating a pattern. We have to play this carefully or we risk spooking them.

I’m thinking over different courses of action, like what to do if we’re discovered early or if things go wrong and they act on whatever they’re planning. A hunter can have all the strength in the world, but planning is the most important part of a mission. 

“How often does this happen? Groups of demons getting together.”

“We see small groups occasionally. Sometimes we break them up, but it depends on the types involved. This is a much larger scale than the Guild is comfortable with,” I reply.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“Recon. We need to know how quickly they’re expanding and look for holes in the ranks. If we can figure out what they’re mobilizing for, we can prepare for it properly or disband it before it gets that far.”

“Aren’t we kind of just assuming they’re up to something bad? What if they’re not doing anything wrong?”

I stop walking and give the fox a hard look, narrowing my eyes. He stops a couple steps ahead and turns to face me, frown on his face. 

“What the hell else would they be doing? A fucking cooking workshop?”

“Well, no, I just—they haven’t done anything wrong,” he says and rubs the back of his neck. “I just think you guys are quick to assume we’re all doing bad shit, y’know? Don’t you think that might be part of the problem?”

I step closer into his space and the fox puts his hands up in front of himself defensively, leaning away from me. “I think that they are the problem. You can’t stand here and tell me that they’re forming that group for any reason other than to start something. That’s bull shit and you know it.”

The fox stares at me for a few seconds before looking away in defeat. 

“That’s what I thought,” I say as I back off him. “You’re a hunter first and a demon second. You can’t sympathize with them anymore. Pick a side, fox.” I continue walking and after a few moments, the fox falls into step beside me again.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had a disagreement about demons since we’ve been on missions together. He comments on my treatment of them every so often. I’m too rough, he says. I didn’t need to use my sword, he says. I understand why he's sympathetic, but there’s no place for that in our line of work. These things are dangerous and I’m not about to get killed because I offered the wrong demon a chance. The fox is naïve. He hasn’t seen what I’ve seen. He hasn’t had to listen to someone sob because a family member is dead or their business is ruined. 

I’m not going to let him skew my view because we’re fucking roommates. 

It's difficult, though. He’s different. It would be impossible to be on a team with him if I didn’t offer him some trust, just as he does for me. I trust him to not turn on me just as he trusts me to not use the collar on him. I trust him to sleep on my stupid couch. I trust him to not attack me in the middle of the night. It goes against every baser instinct I’ve developed since becoming a hunter. I can’t stop it.

I’ve noticed the line is starting to blur. He acts so human all the time. 

I have to constantly remind myself that he’s not. 

Maybe he just happens to be the one decent demon out of the hundreds roaming around the city and I got lucky. I still don’t trust the rest of them. 

The silence is tense for the remainder of the walk. It doesn’t lighten until we approach the restaurant and put everything aside in order to focus solely on the mission. We split up to watch from different angles to see if we can spot anything unusual. Observation is all about watching and waiting, which isn’t the fox’s favorite thing to do, but he does as I say without complaint.

The restaurant is nestled away from the main walkway and looks completely ordinary. A woman comes outside to sweep and reset the chalkboard, and customers go in and out at a normal rate. My Sharingan tells me the woman is a human, and so are most of the customers, but occasionally I’ll spot a demon. Still, nothing particularly suspicious. 

I notice later on in the day that some of the demons entering the restaurant don’t come back out. I start making better note of visual features and confirm my observation. If they aren’t leaving, and I don’t see any large groups on the inside, there has to be another room that’s not visible from the seating area.

I decide to try to get closer. It’s possible that if the demons got wind of the previous hunters they moved location, but I don’t think that’s the case. I make my way down and onto the walkway and walk casually past the restaurant, glancing by as I go. Nothing looks weird. None of the demons I saw go in are visible at the tables, either. I don’t want to go inside and give myself away, so I head around to the back and slip into the shadows of the alleyway. 

I hear voices, so I pause against the wall and wait for them to pass before moving deeper into the alley. The restaurant is two stories tall, but that’s not uncommon for a lot of the buildings in the city. Many have another place renting out the upstairs or living quarters. There’s a fire escape heading up to the second floor. I silently make my way towards it.

It appears that there isn’t anything occupying the space, but small cracks of light leak through whatever they’re using to cover the windows. I’m pushing my luck getting this close, but I’m confident I can do this without issue.

Quickly, I climb the stairs and press myself flat against the cool surface of the wall. There’s no door, so the only way into the room from here would be through the window. I can hear voices, but they’re muffled and I can’t quite make out what they’re saying. There are enough different voices that I can assume there are over ten people. 

I breathe out slowly and lean around to try to get a look through any of the cracks in the window coverings, but they’re too slim to see anything. I don’t need the Sharingan to know that everyone in a room is a demon. There’s something ominous. I usually associate the feeling with large amounts of chakra or a lot of demons in a single space. 

I decide not to press my luck further and climb down the fire escape, back into the alley. The fox and I agreed to meet an hour after sundown, so I start towards the meeting location. 

The intel was correct. The demons are using the restaurant as a meeting place. Without a way to see inside or hear what they're discussing, I’m still in the same position as I had been when I read the mission scroll. I could find out more information by tailing one of the demons and capturing them. There are plenty of persuasive tactics to get one of them to talk, but I also risk the demons getting suspicious if one of their recruits doesn't show up at the next meeting. I also have to assume that most demons in the area are aware of the meetings, and seeing a hunter in the area could tip them off.

I’d still prefer to end this quickly and kill all of them, then we don’t have to concern ourselves about what could potentially happen. It might drag out the ringleader as well. Though, I don’t think the fox would agree with that plan.

The fox who isn’t at the meeting spot like I told him to be. 

I stand around for a whole three minutes before I get irritated and head to where he was told to keep watch.

When I find the fox, he’s asleep on the ledge of the rooftop, head resting on his folded arms. It looks like he passed out while watching. For how long? Who knows.

I take back everything from earlier when I thought he was useful.

I walk up beside him and consider pushing him over the edge. He’ll survive it, but then I’ll have to hear about it for the next week, which would be annoying.

I decide to kick him instead, shoving his shoulder with my sandal hard enough that he topples over with a surprised yelp. I stand over him, fingers resting on the hilt of my sword for no other reason than I feel like being threatening. 

“What are you doing?” I ask calmly.

“Uh, watching the restaurant,” he answers, and smiles sheepishly. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you notice anything?”

“Nope. Everything was good on my end.” He sits up and scoots away from under me. “What about you?”

I stare at him for a few moments. I can tell it’s making him uncomfortable because he keeps looking around, anywhere but at me. I consider bitching him out for falling asleep, but it would be a waste of time and just piss me off more. Stupid fox. 

“I found they're meeting on the second floor around sunset. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they have quite a few gathered already. The only way in from the outside is the window above the fire escape, but it’s probably barricaded. It’s likely there’s an entrance in the restaurant. We need to decide on a move quickly.”

“Should we talk to Hiruzen?”

“Not yet. I want to have more of a plan before we go back to him.”

I sit down on the high ledge of the roof and consider our options. The fox folds his arms over his chest and closes his eyes, something I’ve noticed he does when he’s trying to think. 

I think our next best bet is tailing and trying to capture one of the demons. It would give us a clear source of information at the cost of raising suspicion among the group. If they start to speed up their plans, they could get sloppy and the Guild could capitalize on that. If we pick off one of the lower level demons, it’ll be easy to make him talk. It’s a risk but I’m not seeing another option currently.

I explain this to the fox and he looks over at me with an expression I can’t read. “What is it?” I ask. 

“They’re going to notice if you grab one of them, so I think it’s better if we figure out what’s going on from the inside.”

I consider this for a few moments and I realize what he’s suggesting. “You’ll be outnumbered if things go wrong. They’ll probably kill you.”

“Yeah, but we don’t really have another choice and it’s not like you can do it,” he leans back on his hands and smirks at me. “It’s fine. I can handle it. Are you worried about me?”

I scoff. “Not even slightly. I considered pushing you off the roof fifteen minutes ago.” 

“Sure, but you didn’t,” he laughs softly and I frown in response. He must not believe that I seriously considered it and it bugs me. “Then let’s do it. We just need to find out who’s takin’ the applications and I can slide in.”

I watch him for a few moments as he stands and stretches his arms over his head. I have to agree that this isn’t a terrible idea. If the fox can get in and not fuck anything up, we’ll have the upper hand without any kind of suspicion. Guess there was a reason to keep him around, after all. 

We need to inform Hiruzen and get ready.

___________________________________________________________________________

“And you think it’s a good idea to allow him to infiltrate a demon cell group? What if he decides to side with them? We will lose our greatest asset at a critical time.” Anger seeps through Danzo’s usually level voice.

“I don’t think Sasuke would agree to this plan if he thought Naruto would switch sides on us. It seems highly implausible. He’s been settling into the Guild quite well,” Hiruzen says. “He’s followed through with every mission so far, and Sasuke hasn’t reported any acts of defiance.”

Danzo seems to consider this. “You have faith that he will carry out this mission? You have no reason to believe he would switch sides on us when presented with the ideals of the demon group?”

Danzo and Hiruzen have been arguing back-and-forth since I reported to them. I didn’t think they would be keen on the plan, but they have to see that this is a good option considering the alternatives. They’re the ones that slapped a hunter badge on a demon. It seems silly not to use that advantage. 

Oddly enough, there’s not a single part of me that thinks the fox will switch sides. He might have shown sympathy towards his kind every so often, but I feel it’s natural for him to feel that way. When I scold him about it, it’s usually because his sympathy could put both of us, and the mission, in danger. Feeling bad that I stabbed some cat shifter's thigh and deciding that he agrees with the crimes the demons commit are two very different things.

The fox is pretty set in his morals. I’ve seen him capture demons and work by my side for the last twenty missions. Human or demon, if they’re causing problems to the people of the Konoha, he’s having none of it. 

“I haven’t noticed anything that would suggest he’d take their side. I’m sure he’ll carry out the mission properly,” I say. I’m completely sure about that statement. 

Never thought there would be a day that I actually defended a demon. 

Stupid fox.

A few moments of silence pass before Danzo finally speaks up. “If there’s even a hint that he’s sympathetic towards the other side, kill him. We can’t have that much power falling back into their hands. Do not take any chances with this.” It’s an order, and while I usually wouldn’t take an order form Danzo, Hiruzen seems to mirror the sentiment.

“Move forward with the mission as planned. I will get a group together to serve as backup if he’s discovered so you’re not handling this on your own.” I open my mouth to argue but Hiruzen cuts me off. “They won’t interfere otherwise. Naruto is to report back to you as often as possible. You are to keep as close an eye on him as you can without giving yourself away. Well make our next plans based off the intel he gathers. You’re dismissed.”

___________________________________________________________________________

I open the door to my apartment and the fox immediately pokes his head up from the other side of the couch. He leans his folded arms on the back as I toe off my sandals and close the door behind me.

“What did they say?” 

“We can carry out the mission as planned. I’m supposed to kill you if they brainwash you into joining them.” I probably wasn’t supposed to tell him, but I don’t think it matters. He's already aware of his situation.

“Figured as much. They really think I’d just side with them like that?”

I shrug. “Danzo’s more of demon-hater than me, so he doesn’t trust you at all.”

“Who’s Danzo?”

“Old guy, black robe, cane, shady.”

“Right, I remember seeing him once. I think he was in the room when we got our first mission.”

“Hm.”

I head to my bedroom to change out of my gear and put my sword away. When I come back out, the fox is sitting at the small dinner table in the space beside the kitchen, waiting for a cup of ramen to finish cooking. I have no idea how he eats the stuff all the time, but I’ve given up trying to convince him otherwise.

I have no idea why I even bothered to begin with.

I have no idea why this has become so normal to me.

If someone had asked me two months ago if I would allow a demon to sit at my dining room table and eat a cup of noodles, I’d have laughed my ass off. 

It’s grossly domestic, like we’re friends or something, and I just let it happen over time.

And then, for whatever reason, I sit across from him and eat my not-cup-of-ramen dinner.

I guess, deep down, it’s nice. I know I’m bitter. I never really got closure or answers to what happened and it’s taken a toll. After my brother died, after my family died, everyone started to keep their distance from me. It probably initially started to give me space, but it never seemed to change after that. I started to survive on my own, and the longer I went, the more I felt that I didn’t need anyone. No friends, no family. I’ve been doing just fine like this.

I spent all that time trying to be alone and then I get stuck with this fox. It’s like having a sun walking around my apartment at all times. Doesn’t matter what I try to do to block it out. Even when I’m an ass to him, it just seems to roll right off his shoulders. 

It’s infuriating as much as it is refreshing.

We eat in a comfortable silence and I’m more than ready to go to sleep afterwards. Using the Sharingan all day tends to sap my energy more than usual. There’s also a lot of planning to do tomorrow to get everything ready. This mission went from an A- to an S-rank.

“Sleeping already? It’s not even ten,” the fox calls after me from the table.

“Well, one of us actually did our job today. You should try it.”

The fox has the decency to look embarrassed and rubs the back of his neck, laughing softly. “Right. Won’t happen again. Night!”

I go into my room and close the door behind me, sighing. I hate the sun. 

Well, I thought I did.

___________________________________________________________________________

“Do you not have anything that doesn’t have the weird sunset on the back?” 

“It’s not a sunset, you stupid fox,” I snap, taking my shirt back from him and tossing it to the bed. “It’s a fan, obviously.”

“It’s not that obvious. Looks like a sunset to me.” He steps to my side and makes a show of inspecting my clan insignia on the back of the high-collared shirt I’m wearing. “Like the red part is the sun and the white part is the hill or water.”

“It is obvious. You’re just a moron. No one has ever called it a sunset before. What sense would that even make?” 

“What sense does a fan even make?” the fox replies, snickering. He’s enjoying this.

“It—whatever. Shut up about it,” I say, and childishly turn so he can’t look at it anymore. 

The fox goes to pick up the shirt I threw onto the bed, holding it up and turning it around so he can see the Uchiha crest on the back. I snatch it away from him and glare. He has the nerve to laugh. I’ll kill him.

“Alright, alright. We’re going to have to get something else. I can’t wear any of this.”

Unfortunately, the fox is right. I don’t have any clothes that fit well on him and there’s no way he can go undercover with his Guild uniform on. We could go ask around some of the other hunters, but that would be a pain and no one is going to want to loan clothes to a demon.

“We’ll have to stop by your apartment. You might as well grab what you can since you’re staying here.” 

That felt really weird to say.

“Good idea.”

I find a backpack in my closet for him to carry some stuff in and we make a trip to his apartment. 

___________________________________________________________________________

The fox’s apartment is in the same state we left it on the night I captured him. 

“I’d say ‘sorry the place is a mess,’ but that’s kind of your fault,” he says lightly as he steps inside. 

Without delay, the fox goes off to his bedroom to grab what he can and I wander around the main room where we fought a little over a month ago. One of my kunai blades is embedded in the far wall and another is laying on the wooden floor in a pool of dried blood. I could retrieve them, but for some reason that feels wrong, so I leave them be. The wall nearest to the balcony is badly damaged from where he kicked me into it. 

Being in the apartment feels surreal.

It’s a completely different feeling from when I first stepped foot into it. I’d been watching him for an entire week before I made my move that night. I picked the lock on the balcony door and set a few traps outside of it in case I had needed to make an escape. The fox had picked up on me being in his space a lot quicker than I had thought. I didn’t get to set many traps, and I ended up having to go on the offensive a lot earlier than I initially planned to. 

“Got everything,” the fox says behind me, and I turn to face him. He’s only carrying the backpack I let him borrow and a duffel bag. 

“That’s all?” Not that I have much myself.

He shrugs. “I don’t have a lot. All the furniture was rented so I mostly have clothes and some other stuff.”

I nod and step out of the apartment, heading back down the stairs and onto the walkway. Whoever owns this building and discovers that apartment is going to think someone was murdered there. I will let Hiruzen know so they can send someone from administration to handle that. I wait for the fox, who catches up with me, and we make our way back to my apartment to drop his stuff off. 

Once we’re back, the fox drops off his bags by the couch and digs through until he finds something to wear. I lean on the couch as I wait for him to change. When he steps out, he’s wearing a black hoodie with orange accents and black jeans. This is the first time I’ve seen him in regular clothes. Looks like he’ll blend in just fine.

The collar is visible on his neck and I wonder if anyone will pay enough attention to it. Removing it isn’t an option, so if he’s questioned he’s going to have to commit to it being a fashion statement of sorts. There are no markings on it to lead anyone to believe he’s a hunter’s pet, so it should be fine.

“Do I look good?” the fox asks, probably because I’m staring at him, smile on his face. “You should invest in more orange, less grey. Less sunsets on the back, too.” 

I shove him out of the way so I can go put my sandals back on. He laughs, following after me to pull on his own worn pair of shoes.

___________________________________________________________________________

We start the mission by introducing the fox to the area and letting him feel it out. He’s from the other side of the city, a bit closer to the Guild, so I’m not too concerned about him running into someone who recognizes him. There’s a small chance someone might have seen him in uniform, but it’s unlikely they would put two and two together. It would be easy for him to argue otherwise.

The fox spends the next few days visiting various restaurants and bars, gaining intel and becoming a familiar face around the places demons tend to frequent. I think he’s also just enjoying being able to eat anywhere he wants on Guild money, but it’s not interfering with the mission, so I allow it.

I follow the fox around like a shadow. Whether it be from the roof, following behind him as he meanders through the streets, or sitting on the opposite side of the restaurant to keep an eye out. My job is to notice anything he might miss or intervene if someone were to cause any issues. 

Since the fox can’t outright ask people about the cell group without arousing suspicion, we’re forced into waiting for someone to approach him. It's almost two weeks later when a demon slides onto the stool next to him at a bar. They talk for a little while, speaking low and hushed before the fox nods and follows the demon out. I had expected it to take much longer, but the group is probably desperate to build their numbers quickly.

I trail them cautiously as the fox makes casual conversation while they walk. The demon responds back easily, none the wiser, and leads the fox to the restaurant we had been staking out a while back.

I break off and find a spot to keep watch. I have no way to tell what’s going on and I don’t want to risk getting too close and compromising the mission. I hope the fox sticks to the plan and doesn’t fuck this up. If I could have, I would have taken the infiltration role myself. It’s not that I don’t trust him, and I’m not worried. He’s just a bit of a dumbass sometimes.

Well, I’m a little concerned, not worried. Semantics.

If he were to be discovered, he’s dangerously outnumbered and it’s unlikely that I’ll know he needs help until it’s too late. They won’t allow him weapons, so he can’t take any of his hunter pouches. I should come up with a way for him to signal if something were to happen, or I need to stay much closer to monitor the situation. Just in case.

I mean, I don’t care if something happens, but it would be annoying if he died. What am I supposed to do with my cabinets full of fucking ramen?

I keep watch over the restaurant for the remainder of the evening and head to the meet up spot a few hours later. The fox arrives about ten minutes later and explains to me what he’s learned as we make our way back to my apartment.

Turns out, the cell group is a lot larger than we initially thought. The hunters had only reported the faction in this area, but there’s another forming on the south side. They have plans to run through small scale attacks on specific places in succession in an attempt to cause disarray. The longer it takes for the Guild to respond, the more damage will be done. The Guild is already on the low end of average for hunters, so an attack like this would hurt more than it would have usually.

The fox doesn’t have information on when and where the attacks will take place. Whoever is controlling the cell group is smart enough to keep that information to themselves until they plan on moving forward. They’ve also deemed the fox too new to completely trust yet, so he’s been trying not to push his luck. 

I’m impressed with how much information we were able to garner from this. 

“Getting information about the attacks is your next step. Don’t push it, though. We don’t need them getting suspicious of you.”

The fox nods. “I also want to see if I can figure out who they’re working for. I think only a couple in the group know who it is. The rest are just following the crowd. I don’t think whoever it is is around, though. Seems more like they're giving orders to the leader to pass on.”

There are a handful of high-ranking demons who’ve been on the Guild’s shit list that could probably have something to do with it. I’d have to look through the records to come up with names, but it might be a good place to start. If we can speculate who’s involved, we might be able to intervene beforehand if the fox can’t get information on the attacks themselves.

There isn’t much we can do proactively in this type of operation. All we can do is wait and see what the fox can learn and act quickly on that information. I don’t like not being able to properly plan out a situation, but I don’t have a choice.

The few evenings later, I walk with the fox towards the restaurant location. I’ve been thinking about this since the mission started and I’ve made my decision. I pause a few blocks away from where we normally split apart and he stops and turns to me, hands in the pockets of his jacket. “Something up?”

“What do you plan to do if they figure you out?” I ask.

The fox looks up and scratches his cheek in thought. “Don’t know. Didn’t think about it.”

I roll my eyes. Typical. “You need to think about it. You can’t take everyone at once.”

“Well that’s why you’re watching, right?”

“I can’t see through walls, you idiot fox. I have no way to tell if things start going bad.”

The fox laughs. “You know it’d be easier if you just called me by my name.”

“No.”

“Did you forget what it is?”

“No.”

“I’ll be fine, Sasuke. Stop worrying.”

My eye twitches. “I’m not worried. If you want to run around a demon den with no plan, go for it. I don’t care.”

“Sure. I come up with better stuff on the spot anyways. Meet later?” He turns and starts to walk off and I exhale slowly. I can’t believe I’m actually about to do this.

“Fox.”

“Yeah?” he asks over his shoulder, stopping again.

“I’m going to adjust the settings on your collar. Just in case shit goes wrong you can get out.”

His eyes widen at me, surprised, and I look away because this is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. It will be detrimental to the mission if he dies, I tell myself. A total waste of the last month and all the time we’ve spent on this.

When did I become so soft?

“Are you sure?” he asks. “Won’t Hiruzen get pissed or something?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” I snap. “It’s my mission so my call. Shut up.” 

I bring my wrist up and move the warmer covering up the spot where the collar controller is. I press my thumb to the device and turn down the settings. I still have pale scars from when he clawed my arm on the day we first fought. I cover my wrist back up with the warmer and rest my hand on my hip.

The fox runs his hand through his hair and shivers. “Wow, that’s a weird feeling.”

“Try something and—“

“You’ll kill me?” he interrupts, smile on his face.

I glare at him. “Correct.”

“Got it.”

He turns and I watch him head out onto the walkway. 

For some reason, I feel like it was the right call. Just in case.

For some reason, I trust him. 


	5. Naurto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto has an identity crisis.

It feels so unbelievably good to have access to my chakra again. 

I feel much less fragile and much more like myself. It’s like getting a surge of energy after drinking sugary tea, but without the crash.

Chakra is so integrated into who and what I am that it’d felt like a part of me was missing. I’ll no longer be surprised by how long papercuts take to heal. Humans have it kind of rough.

Sasuke is probably right about this being a pretty dangerous situation. I feel like I have it handled, though, if things were to go wrong. Each time I go to one of the meetings, I make mental note of how many are around me and how I could escape. I might not be as smart as Sasuke, but I can hold my own in a fight. I’m not too concerned, especially now with the collar adjusted.

Still, there are a lot of things that could go wrong. There are a few demon types I’ve never encountered before. I didn’t really listen during the “demons studies” part of Iruka’s class, so I’m not sure how dangerous some of them are. Despite that, I can tell that some are definitely on the stronger side. Most of them I could handle, but all at once is, admittedly, a lot.

I have it handled. I’m confident, even if my partner isn’t.

As I walk towards the restaurant, I keep thinking about how Sasuke had actually seemed kind of worried about me. It’s funny, really. I knew deep down no one could be that emo all the time, but he was doing a pretty good job at proving me wrong.

I can’t believe that Sasuke, the guy that gives me about five death threats a day, is willing to trust me enough to change the collar settings. It’s only been a little over two months, but I think we’re getting along pretty well, all things considered.

I know I should probably dislike him. We couldn’t be more different fundamentally. He’s an asshole of a hunter who’s way too slash-happy with a sword, and he did stab me one time. 

But despite all that, I still like him.

I feel like I’m starting to finally get through to him. When we became partners, it was pretty apparent that he wanted nothing to do with me, but that’s slowly started to change. He’s let me in a little more and I don’t feel like I’m constantly walking on eggshells. 

Not saying that I think we’re best friends yet, but I think we’re making progress. Maybe just regular friends. Something like that. 

Either way, I’ve enjoyed working with Sasuke and I’m determined to do well on this assignment. If I can pull this off, maybe I can get him to acknowledge me as a hunter and not just a demon he was forced to babysit on missions. The thought makes me smile. 

Once I reach the restaurant, I tell myself to focus as I head inside and walk through the tables and up to the front counter. There’s a line of people, humans and demons, ordering food before returning to their seats. When it’s my turn at the counter, I tell the owner that I’m here to pick up an order of plain sticky rice and she nods and tells me it’s in the back. I thank her and head through the doorway into the kitchen. On the other side of the door are a pair of demons who recognize me and allow me to continue on to the back where there’s a door to a staircase. The staircase goes up to the second floor. I pass through another door and down a short hallway before reaching the large meeting room.

The room has about the same floor space as the restaurant below it. There’s not much in it save for some benches and a couple rows of those uncomfortable folding chairs. The windows that Sasuke had mentioned during our first night are boarded up and covered with a curtain. At the back of the room, in front of the window, is a wooden platform. I always wonder how much they’re paying the restaurant owner to keep quiet. 

The room is busier today than it has been in the past. I make note that there are a couple of faces I haven’t seen before, so they’re still bringing in recruits. A quick head count puts us at about twenty, four more than when I was inducted. 

It’s unlikely that every demon who’s involved is currently at the meeting. The meeting schedule is purely by word of mouth, so it’s unlikely to see everyone here at once. This leads me to assume our numbers could be closer to twenty-five. I’ve come to most of the meetings, but I skip a few every so often to not raise suspicion. 

I spot one of the demons I’ve been talking to since I joined and make my way over to him. His name is Toru and he said he’s a type of chimera. I had to ask Sasuke what the hell that was and apparently it’s a creature that’s three different animals in one, which is insane. He’s one of the more unique demons types I’ve met here as most everyone else are shapeshifters and fae. 

The day I was introduced to the group was only a week after Toru had been recruited. I don’t know what drew him to me, but we started talking and got along fairly well. He’s pretty nice, actually. Well, so long as I ignore the part about him joining a murderous demon group.

“Naruto! Hey!” Toru says with a wave as I walk between the chairs over to where he’s sitting. He scoots his chair over a little and I set the one beside him into a position more to my liking. I prefer to be able to see the whole room at once.

I sit down and roll up the sleeves of my hoodie. It’s a little warm in the room. “Hey, how’s it going?”

“Good! Figured I’d come to today’s meeting. Looks like they roped in a few more people.”

I look around the room like I hadn’t noticed this already. “Seems like it. Wonder if we’ve got enough yet.”

“I don’t know, man. I hope so, ‘cause I kind of hate coming to these things.” He leans forward and rests his chin on his hand, elbow balanced on his knee. He looks at me from the corner of his eyes. “But how’s it going with you? You seem kinda different today. You meet a girl? Get laid or something?” He laughs.

I laugh, shrugging off the comment with a dismissive wave. He talks about women a lot. It's definitely his favorite topic. I don’t share his interest, but play along. “Nah, no girls. Nothin’ like that.”

He can probably sense the change in my chakra levels. He’s the only demon I’ve been in close contact with, so I assume he’s the only one that would notice. It shouldn’t be enough to alarm anyone, as Sasuke only turned down the collar halfway or so, but with how crazy high my chakra levels are, even that change is pretty large. 

“Well, shit, I’m jealous. There must be something, or someone. I’d love to ask one of those fairy girls out.”

“What’s stopping you?” I ask, rolling with the topic to keep it away from myself. 

“Look at them! So hot but so fucking scary.” 

I follow his line of sight to three women all standing together, chatting. They must be new additions as I’ve never seen them before. Each of them have a set of thin, translucent wings sticking out their upper backs, sharp pointed ears, and nimble features, making them easily identifiable as fae. 

The wings and ears compliment their outfits, blending in like they were meant to be there. I makes me wonder how they appear in public. Any demon who wants to avoid constant discrimination will use a henge to appear as human as possible. It’s purely to make humans more comfortable around us. But here, when surrounded only by other demons, they don’t have to worry about what the humans think. Most demons are proud to be one, so it must be a good feeling. 

I can’t say I’ve ever felt really felt the same.

However, there’s a sense of inclusion in the room that I don’t often feel anywhere else in Konoha. I understand why everyone here is enticed by what the group has to offer. It’s empowering in a way. I sometimes find myself drawn to it.

Drawn to the demon-friend club part, not the killing everyone part, of course.

Just as I’m about to say something to Toru, the leader takes to the front of the room and gets everyone’s attention. His second in command at his side.

The leader of our cell group is Seki. He’s a tall, thin guy with silver hair and a pair of short, white antlers sticking out from the top of his head. I’ve learned that he’s a wendigo, which, according to Sasuke, is a rarer demon type in the A-rank category. They sound pretty cool, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious what his true form looks like.

“Everyone, preparations are still being made for the uprising. Our sister cell group is still growing in numbers and we’ll soon be able to move forward with our plan of attack. I need you all to continue to be patient and invite your friends. We have an excellent group here and I know we’ll see results if we can execute this well.” Seki is cool and calm as he talks and it’s easy to see why he was picked to be in control. It kind of reminds me of Sasuke.

There’s still no word of the attack, so nothing worth noting. This is the part of the meeting where I find a hard time paying attention because it’s so boring to sit through. An hour is way too much time to listen to someone drone on about demons taking over. Toru seems to mimic my feelings as he usually spends them flirting with a woman we happen to be sitting by. 

The second in command, Asami, takes over the remainder of the meeting and discusses plans and formations. Nothing is very in depth regarding strategy, as this is just a random group of demons with no training, but it’s more organized than the Guild had initially believed. Specific types of demons were given different roles in formation. The idea is that, during the attack, we cause as much damage as we can before the hunters show up. That includes property and bodily.

There have been murmurings of the possible locations that could be attacked, but they’re all speculation. Seki has kept that information to himself and there are too many possible locations to take a guess. The Guild is frustrated I haven’t been able to find out, but asking raises suspicion and I’m trying to do this right.

I’ve spent a lot of time considering what will happen during the attack and what I’ll have to do during it. I refuse to actually hurt anyone and, though I have gotten into my fair share of trouble for property damage, I don’t plan on picking that habit up again. However, my role in this attack is to be at the front line, which makes blending in and pretending a bit more difficult.

I told them that I was a type of shifter, a fox, so I got roped in with the front formation with the rest of the shifters. With my chakra partially blocked and a lot of my demon traits fitting the bill, it’s an easy one to play off and no one’s questioned me. I’m slightly offended, because I’m leagues above a shifter, but I’m “undercover” and all that.

Maybe I’m a little proud about being a demon. Sometimes.

Asami continues on and I catch myself before I doze off. I think about how Sasuke would chew me the fuck out if he knew how little I tune in during these things. In my defense, it’s pretty late at night and there’s not a whole lot to report on. A decent part of the meeting is Asami catching up the newcomers, information I’ve already heard.

At the end of the meeting, I say a goodbye to Toru and meet Sasuke at our rally point. I always check to make sure no one is trailing me and Sasuke changes the location every meeting. 

“Look who decided to show up,” I tease as I approach Sasuke. He has his hand on his hip in the way that makes me feel like I’m in trouble. I usually am.

I am late. I went to the old meeting spot by accident.

“It’s really amazing you’ve managed to survive this long,” Sasuke says.

“I’m only a couple minutes late.”

“Seven.”

“Seven?”

“I don’t know why I bother even meeting you.”

“’Cause you miss me. Admit it,” I taunt. Sasuke glares at me.

Sasuke’s always irritated hearing that there’s no more information on when or where they plan on attacking, but there’s not much I can do. Infiltrating takes time and Seki is doing a good job at keeping everyone in the dark. Unfortunately, there’s no way to speed up the process. We’re stuck waiting.

I can tell Sasuke’s getting antsy and I feel similarly. Waiting for something to happen is frustrating and often doesn’t leave time for preparation. I would rather act sooner than later but my hands are tied.

Sasuke and I start on the walk back to the apartment. The walk is familiar now, as if I were going back to my own place. I’ve started considering it home even if that’s not technically the case. The Guild doesn’t seem intent on me being without my hunter shadow so it looks like the arrangement is here to stay for a while.

I’m not mad about it, really.

“Let’s get ramen,” I suggest to my moody partner.

“No.”

I groan loudly in frustration, just to be obnoxious.

___________________________________________________________________________

Over the next couple weeks, I continue to attend the meetings under my assignment orders.

I don’t know exactly what’s going on at the sister cell group, but it sounds like they're reaching the numbers Seki is hoping for. I can tell a few in the group are getting impatient and it’s becoming more common in the meetings for someone to speak out. At the last meeting, a shifter asked when things were going to start moving along and was joined by a murmuring of agreement from others. Their frustration leads to them doing most of my job for me. If they ask, I don’t have to.

The group has a few people that I’ve made note to keep an eye on. A few members seem like troublemakers, the types to take full advantage of this attack plan. They’re the minority in the group, but they’re vocal with their intent and hatred towards humans. Whenever I’m around them, it reminds me of the extreme end of things. These are the type of demons that the hunter groups go after. The type that Sasuke is talking about when he rants about asshole demons. The type that gives us all a bad name. 

I wish I could show everyone what the rest of us were like. I’m not like that. Toru isn’t like that. Most of the demons in this room aren’t human hating psychopaths. Most everyone is just frustrated with the way they’ve been treated and feel like this is the action that’s needed. Some people chose to make signs, some people chose to protest in other ways.

Whether or not it’s right isn’t my place to say. I’ve dealt with my share of humans being dicks, but I don’t feel this is the best way to go about it. Killing humans just makes them want to get back at us. I’m sick of the cycle. The group needs to be stopped. 

After one of the meetings, Toru asks if I want to head to a bar with him because he needs a wingman. Hilarious that he’d ask me of all people, really. I’d usually decline because I’d be a shit wingman, but if I can meet some other demons, maybe I can learn some more information. I’ve heard some rumors that Seki might not be the guy running the show. Someone could be controlling him from the shadows to keep himself safe. I don’t know the merit of these rumors, but they usually stem from some kind of truth.

“Here’s the thing,” Toru starts as he throws an arm over my shoulders. We’ve only been at the bar for an hour. He’s kind of drunk. “I’m just sick of always having to pretend I’m human. ‘Cause m’not. Why would I want to be? Like—have you ever actually met a human you like?”

I think about this for a moment. If I’d been asked that question a few years ago, I’d have said no.

“Yeah, I can think of one or two,” I say truthfully. “Why’re you so pissed at the humans?” 

“I never told you?” He asks and I shake my head. He’s still leaning heavily on me, to my mild displeasure. “I had this fiancé right—human. She was beautiful. Totally loved her. I really did, y’know? But my boss at work found out I was a demon and fired me. Fuck that guy. Whole other load of shit, but anyways, my girl found out and broke it off. Canceled the wedding, everything.”

“Shit, man. Really?” I’m genuinely surprised when I look over at him. 

“Yeah, total BS, right? Nothin’ changed about me. I’m still me, same guy, but guess that was enough to call it off.” Toru releases me in favor of leaning against the counter and offers me a sad smile. “I’m just kinda pissed about it.”

I give him a sympathetic look and fold my arms on the bar counter. Toru might be—crude sometimes but he’s not a bad person. I don’t understand why his fiancé would leave him over that. It pisses me off. 

One of Toru’s friends does a good job of perking him up and he seems to move past the topic as quickly as it had come up. I find myself having a harder time letting it go, despite it not even being my problem. 

I had always worked in places where there was a mixed demon-human group. It’s a lot more common in blue-collar type jobs. From what I’ve learned about Toru, he’d been a businessman at some point. Those types of jobs tend to be more discriminatory. 

These types of issues are why groups like this form. I understand the lure and why they gain traction, why people like Toru are drawn in. Some small, nagging part of my brain tells me that I should be on their side. That by being a hunter and actively working against this group, I’m approving of things like what happened to Toru. I don’t, and I never had agreed to the mistreatment, I know it’s not right, but it’s beyond myself. I do what I can but it takes more than just me. 

I’m so frustrated by the whole thing. I do my best to ignore the stupid part of my brain that keeps telling me I’m betraying my own kind.

When I get out of my own head, the mood among the group has noticeably lightened. I try to involve myself so I don’t spend the rest of the night pissed about the state of Konoha. It helps that they’re good company so it’s not difficult to put my thoughts aside for the time being.

I attempted to do some digging, but ended up not getting any further with the rumors about who is behind all this. Despite that, I do end up having a good time. Toru is fun to be around and he has a decent group of friends. I’ve never been invited out to do things like this, and it’s a nice change to be surrounded by other demons. 

After I leave the bar, I make my way to meet up with Sasuke. It’s likely that he’s been tailing me all night, so he knows where I’ve been. Meaning, he can’t be mad at me for being late this time.

As I walk, I can’t help but think about how this is the first time I’ve been around demons in a casual setting. I was actually invited to be around them, no less. I have no idea if they would’ve treated me the same knowing I’m a bijuu. It’s always been the very thing that makes other demons keep me at an arm’s length, but I wonder if they’d be any different. I wonder how Toru would react. 

It’s funny how being in the Guild has helped me on both sides, in a way. With the uniform, I’m a hunter and the humans respect me. With the collar, I’m a shapeshifter and the demons don’t mind me. I exist in some weird middle ground in a realm of half-truths to please the side of myself that I’m acting as at the time.

I enjoy being a hunter. I like helping people and working for the city I love. 

I enjoy being a demon. I like being strong and it’s a part of who I am.

So why is it so fucking difficult for me to be both at the same time?

The Guild and Toru and his friends have both been a taste of what I can’t fully have. It’s frustrating.

“Anything new?” Sasuke asks after I catch up with him. Time to play hunter again.

I shake my head and we start to make our way back to the apartment. I shove my hands into my pockets. I think back to the meeting and anything I made note about, any new plans, the rumors, the troublemakers in the group. Sasuke’s presence always seems to ground me, remind me that I have a place and a role.

“No, but I think something’s going to happen soon.”

“Any reason why?”

“No, just a hunch.”

“Hm.”

___________________________________________________________________________

At one of the meetings, I overhear a pair of demons talking about Seki, so I move in closer to listen in. I lean against the wall a couple feet from them and watch Toru as he tries to flirt with one of those fae girls with long, brown hair. She’s not having any of it.

“—that makes no fucking sense. Why would Seki be taking orders from a human?” one of the guys asks.

“I’m just saying what I heard. If that’s the truth, should we trust that this shit’s going to work out? What if it’s all some big set up?”

“There’s no way Seki would set us all up like that. Why would a human even care about us? Or want to help us? You realize how stupid that sounds?”

“Yeah, guess so. I’ll ride it out but if shit hits the fan I’m not about to get fucking slaughtered by the Guild. Fuck that.”

I step away from them and head back towards Toru. I can’t imagine a human siding with a demon uprising. It’d be really risky. What could the human possibly get out of a deal like this? Even if the attack went smoothly, there are a handful of demons that I wouldn’t trust any farther than I could throw them. They’d kill a human for little reason, helpful or not.

Sasuke and I have been under the assumption that Seki isn’t the one calling the shots as all rumors have pointed in this direction. However, I didn’t anticipate that the person running the show was a human. That makes things interesting. It brings up a whole slew of questions and makes it more difficult for us to figure out who it is. When we assumed it was a demon, we had a list of potential names that could be involved. But if they’re a human? We’re back at square one.

Looks like I have something to report for once.

___________________________________________________________________________

“Let’s get food before we head back,” I say to Sasuke one night as we’re making our way back to the Guild complex. This is like my twelfth attempt. 

“There’s food at home, fox.”

I roll my eyes to the night sky and lock my hands behind my head. “So? Y’know you can still eat out when there’s food at home, right?”

“You just want ramen, which we have a ton of at home,” Sasuke says. 

“Come on. There’s this really good place near my old apartment. I haven’t been there since you fox-napped me,” I tease, lighthearted. I might be trying to play my pity card a little.

Sasuke seems to consider this. “Fine.” 

Finally, success.

Tucked away a few blocks from the complex is a ramen shop named Ichiraku. I’ve been going there since I was little. It never seemed to bother the owner that I was a demon, so the place had become a refuge for me. It’s the best ramen shop in the country and not a single other place comes close. I’ll die on that hill. 

I push the noren out of the entryway and sit down at one of the empty seats. Sasuke comes and sits beside me, folding his arms on the counter and looking over at the menu on the side of the wall. I’m excited for him to try it.

“Naruto!” Teuchi calls from the other side. He hands the basket of noodles he’s holding to his daughter and turns to face me. “It’s been a while! Where have you been? There were some rumors but no one has seen you around in a long time.”

“Yeah, I kinda got caught up in something, but it’s alright now.” I say with a smile and rub the back of my neck. I look over and Sasuke is looking up at Teuchi. “And this is Sasuke. I told him he had to come by and try some ramen.” 

“Nice to meet you, Sasuke! We get some hunters around here sometimes but I’ve never seen you before. It’s nice to see Naruto bring a friend for once! He’s usually here all the time by himself,” Teuchi says.

I feel my face heat up and close my eyes in embarrassment for a second. I’m not sure if it’s because of the implication I don’t have friends or that Sasuke is my friend. Maybe both. Either way, Sasuke doesn’t comment on it. Moving on. “Yeah, well, anyways, can I have my usual?” I ask.

“Sure,” the older man says, and turns to Sasuke. “And you?”

“I’ll just have the same,” Sasuke answers. Teuchi nods with a smile and turns around to start on the order.

“Here alone all the time, huh?” Sasuke asks me with a smirk. 

I turn slightly in my seat to give him an annoyed look, like he has any room to talk. “Not all the time,” I say as I pick a pair of chopsticks from the cup on the counter. “Sometimes I go to the curry place instead.”

“Have you ever actually cooked food for yourself?” 

I cross my arms and consider this for a moment, because I’m pretty sure I have, but I’m drawing a blank. Maybe only a few times. Cooking isn’t my strong suit, so it seems like a waste of ingredients as it usually turns out tasting bad. 

Well, I did turn on the rice cooker one day at Sasuke’s place. 

“Seriously?” Sasuke asks. I can hear the amusement in his voice. Asshole. “When was the last time you ate a vegetable?”

“There are little pieces of corn and carrots in the ramen!” 

“Any normal person would have died by now if all they ate was instant ramen for this long.”

“All the more proof that I’m way stronger than you,” I say, imitating Sasuke’s earlier smirk.

“Hm. If we’re keeping track, I’m pretty sure that the score is zero to one in my favor, fox.”

“I told you we could go again, just no tricks this time,” I challenge. “Try me.” 

I’d kill to get another chance to fight with Sasuke. He’s turned down all my earlier attempts but maybe I can convince him once this mission is over.

“I’d still beat you, so there’s no point. You’d just end up embarrassing yourself again.”

“Sounds like you’re scared to find out.”

Sasuke lets out a short, sarcastic laugh. “I’m not scared of you, fox.”

I glare at him. I consider taking this outside and seeing who wins an impromptu match. He glares back at me like he’s thinking the same and a smile twitches at the corner of my lips. Sasuke’s a cocky bastard but I could take him.

“No fighting in the ramen shop,” Teuchi says as he sets down both bowls in front of us. “Eat instead.”

Food is enough for me to let Sasuke win the staring match. I stick my tongue out at him before turning to my bowl of ramen, and as if agreeing to postpone the match, Sasuke turns to his own food as well.

The ramen is perfect, as always, and Teuchi gives me another bowl without me asking for it. It seems like Sasuke’s also enjoying it and it makes me happy. I might convert him into a ramen lover and then we can come by more often—

I catch myself in the middle of that thought and feel kind of embarrassed about it for some reason. It’s not like we aren’t already joined at the hip so it’s not weird or anything. I’m going to tell myself that it’s not. Friends get food together all the time. It’s totally normal.

Maybe it’s a little weird. I don’t know. I just like having Sasuke around. I feel that, despite our lives being different, we can relate on a certain level about things. It’s a connection I haven’t had with anyone else and I’m becoming pretty attached to it.

Sasuke is the only person who knows both sides of me. When I’m around him, I’m not forced into bending the truth about the two parts of myself, demon and hunter. Though he complains about demons constantly, he seems to accept me for who I am.

It’s so nice.

I’m still going to kick his ass next time we have a chance to fight, though.

Once I finish my second serving, I look over at Sasuke, who’s waiting for me to finish with his own empty bowl in front of him. “S’good, huh?”

Sasuke sighs like it’s physically difficult for him to admit it, but I can see it on his face. “Yeah, it was.”

I can’t stop the grin that spreads across my face.

___________________________________________________________________________

Toru talks one of the fae girls into joining us for a late dinner after one of the meetings and I have no idea how he managed it. Any time he tries to talk to them, he’s promptly shut down, so he must have caught her on a good day. He tells me I must be “a good luck charm or something” and I assure him that it’s all his own doing.

She’s surprisingly nice, despite her initial icy attitude, and I find it hard to believe she’s someone who would join in on an attack like this. It sounds like it’s something Sasuke would say, but she’s very human, and if I hadn’t seen her wings and felt her chakra, I’d have assumed she was. Often times, it’s impossible to tell the difference between a demon and a human without a good sense of smell. It sounds childish, but I wish we could all just get along.

Some of Toru’s other friends that I met at the bar the last time tag along, so I chat with them while Toru tries to charm the fae. The conversation starts out lighthearted, talking about their jobs and other things, and later switches to the topic of the meeting.

Despite mostly everyone in the group sounding hesitant, they seem to have come to the conclusion that this is a necessary evil. They view it as a form of protest against the Guild itself and the feudal system above it. The feudal lords can’t be bothered to involve themselves with what’s going on in the country and the Guild has sort of taken over governing in that absence.

I sympathize with the mistreatment they’ve experienced but I don’t agree that the attack is the best way to go about it. I think there are other forms of protest they could explore and ways the Guild needs to improve, but I don’t agree with hurting people. I don’t think most of them do either, but they’ve reached a boiling point.

The conversation kills my mood and I find myself ignoring the remainder of it. I feel weird about the whole thing. I feel like I should agree with them and I should be angry and I should want revenge for how I’ve been treated before, how the Guild treated me, but I can’t do it. Maybe that makes me a shitty demon, but I think back to how happy the people are after Sasuke and I complete missions and I would chose that over any alternative.

The cycle has to stop somewhere, so I’ve decided it stops with me.

At one point, I look around the restaurant and lock eyes with Sasuke, who’s sitting at one of the tables near the door. I know he’s been keeping an eye on me throughout these missions, but for some reason, seeing him is jarring. I usually don’t see him until we meet up later and I’ve had time to switch modes. 

When I’m with Sasuke on a mission, I’m a hunter. Right now, sitting with Toru and his friends, I’m a demon. I feel like I was just caught doing something I’m not supposed to.

Sasuke returns to looking at the menu in his hand and I turn back to the group, feeling lost.

___________________________________________________________________________

Toru nudges me and I sit up quickly, not realizing I dozed off in the middle of the meeting again. 

“This is it, man,” he says, looking forward at Seki.

I’m slightly disoriented, but I force my brain to finish booting and catch the tail end of what I’m assuming is a Seki monologue. 

“—has come and we make our move tonight. This is our chance to dig in deep and make a difference for all demon-kind. No longer will we live under the humans and no longer will we be treated with disrespect from the Hunter’s Guild. This is it.”

I look around the room and the mix of reactions throws me for a loop. Over half of the group is cheering and the rest seem much more reserved. Some whisper to their friends next to them and others have confusion and surprise written over their faces. It’s one thing to come to meetings, participate, be around your own kind, and talk up all these plans, but it’s a whole other thing to act on them. I don’t think some of them realized this was for real. Even Toru doesn’t look like he’s sure.

I have to tell Sasuke.

I move to stand and Toru grabs my arm. “Wait! Where are you going? We should stick together, man.”

I open my mouth to speak but everyone starts rushing out of the room and Toru pulls me along. 

Once outside, everyone takes to the rooftops and heads straight for one of the large shopping districts towards the center of the city. I follow the group and frantically look around for Sasuke, but I can’t spot him. It’s likely that right when he noticed the movement, he went back to the Guild for backup.

I trail towards the back of the group and stick with Toru who’s just ahead of me. It’s a violation of the formation Asami had come up with, but I don’t have time to worry about it. The last time I took a headcount, the group was at thirty-one but I’m only seeing around twenty-six. It’s still too many for me to stop alone. I don’t know what to do. Is my mission over? Is the Guild expecting me to join in to keep up the facade? Should I do something to stop this anyways? Can I do anything to stop this?

Am I still supposed to be a demon?

Using the rooftops means that we approach the shopping district much faster than anyone who’s on foot. Toru’s unsure pace means we’re slightly late but I can hear all the screaming before I even catch up. 

I get to the edge of the shopping area and freeze in place on the rooftop.

It’s fucking chaos. 

People are running everywhere. Glass smashing. Anything and everything is being ripped up and destroyed. People are screaming.

I refuse to be part of this, mission or not.

I’m not a demon. I’m a hunter.

Someone comes up behind me and shoves my back. I turn on them quickly, growling. 

“Get in there! This is our chance!” he shouts before he jumps down. I watch him go, wishing I’d reacted sooner. 

I don’t know what to do, but standing here is fucking useless.

I run across the nearby rooftops for a better view but I can hardly keep track of what’s going on. There are too many people for me to try to focus any one demon and intervene directyly with them. I don’t want to draw attention to myself either. I switch gears. I have to help whoever I can until the Guild can get here.

I pull my hood up to make myself harder to identify and jump down to ground level to remove a couple people from the thick of things. I pick them up and drop them off towards the edge of the shopping area so they have an easier time running away. I manage to move an elderly man out of the main area and another woman who’s trying to run while carrying a baby. I try to prioritize anyone I see whose struggling, but there’s so many people. Some of the deaths are going to be caused by people getting trampled. 

Everywhere I turn someone’s yelling for help. I can’t keep up. There are so many people and I don’t have enough hands or enough of me. The attack has been going on for less than five minutes and no one’s letting up.

I’m getting more and more pissed. 

I hear someone scream nearby. I don’t know why, but I immediately spin around and make my way across the roof. 

Running down the alleyway is a little girl and a couple other people trying to escape, a demon chasing them. The adults are faster and, probably not realizing it, leave the girl behind. I quickly jump down and land between them, cutting the demon off, who skids to a stop in front of me. I recognize her as one of the fae from the group Toru is always flirting with.

“What are you doing?” she snaps at me. 

“Back off,” I say, my voice hard. The little girl latches onto my leg and buries her face into the thigh of my jeans.

“Are you seriously protecting her? What the fuck are you doing?” she stalks towards me. “Move!”

I’m done with this shit.

“Back of the fuck off.” I growl low and let my chakra flare. 

I will fucking kill her.

She seems to consider how outmatched she is and takes a step back. “You fucking wait, traitor.” She turns and runs off.

I exhale slowly to calm myself and pat the little girl’s arm so that she’ll let go of my leg. “Hey, hey, I got you.” Once she moves, I squat down and take one of her hands. “Were you with you mom? Do you know where she is?”

The girl nods and wipes the tears from her eyes with her free hand. “We were getting mochi,” she says through hiccups, looking up at me.

I offer her a smile. “Okay, let’s go there, then.” 

I scoop up the little girl and make my way back towards the shopping area. The Guild has arrived and started to intervene, detaining some of the demons and killing those who choose to fight back. Most of the civilians have taken shelter or gotten out of the area with the help of the hunters.

The girl couldn’t have run too far from where her mom had been, so I backtrack from the alleyway and look for any sweets shops nearby. I quickly make my way through the fleeing people, trying to not draw any attention to myself. The girl points out the right shop as I pass it.

The front window is smashed in, but otherwise the shop seems empty. I step through the opening and slowly make my way through the small store. There’s a door towards the back, beside the counter, and I try to open it but it’s blocked from the other side. 

“Mommy?” the girl asks.

“Hisako? Hisako?!” someone starts shouting through the door.

A few seconds go by as they move whatever they’re using as a barricade and the door flies open. There are five people in the small room staring in surprise. The woman puts her arms out for the girl and she reaches for her mom. I hand her over gently. 

“Thank you so—” the woman stops mid-sentence and yelps, shoving me away. She pulls her daughter into the room. The door slams shut.

I’m stunned.

“But mommy he—” I hear the little girl say before her mom’s fretting interrupts her.

I turn and catch my reflection in a glass case sitting on top of the front counter. I do a double take.

I must have lost some control because my irises are completely red with a foxlike slit down the center. The markings on my cheeks are a lot more defined and when I open my mouth, the difference in my canines is hard to miss.

I didn’t even notice.

I adjust my henge and my demon traits slip away, my eyes returning blue. I’ve never been able to completely cover the markings on my cheeks.

I quickly make my way out of the store and back into the main area. The demons are retreating as the Guild has gained the upper hand of the situation. Things have calmed down, the plaza is mostly empty save for the hunters, the humans who decided to risk staying and watching, and the dead. I’m still a bit shaken up. I’m not sure what I should do, so I start to move towards the Guild members. 

Someone runs up beside me and grabs my arm, pulling me along with them, so I’m forced to follow. It’s Toru.

“Quick! We need to get out of here! Now!” 

I go along with him. I don’t know why. I shouldn’t. I’m a hunter. 

No. 

I’m a demon.

I feel numb.

___________________________________________________________________________

We make it back to the restaurant and though it’s possible the Guild is aware of the location, it’s the best place for us all to rendezvous. It’s likely that the hunters are too busy dealing with the shopping district anyways.

The restaurant is empty so we head straight into the kitchen and up the stairs to the meeting room. There are some people in the room already, but only a little over a third of what we started with when we left.

Thanks to everyone’s chakra, any injuries are fairly minimal. If someone suffered damage that their chakra couldn’t handle, they didn’t make it back from the shopping area. There are some minor injuries on those who are low on chakra and having trouble healing, but everyone in the room will survive just fine.

The room is mostly quiet other than the murmurings of someone here and there. I look at Toru, who seems completely deflated, sitting on the bench we usually share with his head in his hands. I want to feel bad for him and offer comfort but I can’t. I don’t care.

I wonder what he did.

We all stand around for another ten minutes or so and the door opens again to reveal the second in command. Asami comes into the room and stands in the center, looking around at all of us. 

“The Guild was a lot faster at reacting than we had initially anticipated. Our sister group was also stopped, though they suffered more causalities than we did. It’s difficult to take a count currently, but we’ll figure out where we are and reassess,” she says calmly.

“That’s bullshit!” one of the shifters shouts. “Most of us are dead and that’s all you have to say about it? I thought you guys had this shit planned out?”

“Again, we were not expecting the Guild to respond as quickly as they did. We’re led to believe that they were watching this location more intently than we thought or someone was feeding them information.”

A small group of demons file into the room and find an empty space near the wall to stand. Things are silent for a few moments. Fourteen now.

“So, what are we going to do about the traitors? Everyone who ran away when things got bad or split before we even got there?” a guy with dog ears and a tail growls.

“Yeah, they’re the reason this shit went so bad!” someone chimes in.

The group starts to uproar with their individual accounts of what they saw happen and Asami shushes them. “We’ll handle those who betrayed us accordingly. There’s nothing we can do about it right now.”

“Really? Because we could do something about one of them right now,” a woman says. Bitchy. I recognize the voice.

We lock eyes immediately. 

“Who?” Asami says, and follows the fae’s line of sight to me.

Now the whole room is staring at me.

“The fuck are you talkin’ about?” I snap back.

“You know what I’m talking about, you fucking traitor. I told you I’d be back for you,” she says, sneering.

“Naruto? What?” Toru asks at my side, looking up.

I ignore him. “You’re full of shit.”

“You got in my fucking way when I was going after that girl!”

“Prove it.” 

“You saved her! You fucking did it! I don’t need proof! I watched you fucking do it!” She shouts back at me.

“I saw you carrying a girl,” someone to my left says. 

“Yeah, I saw that too, when I was leaving after the hunters showed up,” another says.

Maybe I’m not a demon, either.

“You guys are full of it! Naruto wouldn’t turn on us like that!” Toru shouts and stands up off the bench. I can feel his eyes on me, but I’m too busy glaring at the stupid fae. “Naruto?”

Most of the group seems conflicted, looking at each other for answers. Lying isn’t going to get me anywhere and I’m already outvoted. I switch gears. Who can I take down immediately, who do I need to watch for, how many, what type—

“Wait, I know you,” a woman says as she steps through the group. “Yeah, I saw you a while back. You were with that hunter when Arata was taken.” She leans in close to me and sniffs. 

I pull away immediately. The fuck?

“I knew it! You were at the convenience store with the Uchiha! I never forget a smell!” She snaps her fingers and points towards me, and I stare at her, confused. She has these gold-colored irises that are shaped like a cat's. 

It hits me.

Just after we had spoken to the shop owner on my first mission, there was a cat just outside the convenience store. I tried to pet it but it ran away once Sasuke came over. 

“You’re the demon that’s been playing hunter’s pet!” she says.

“Hunter?” someone says.

“He’s a fucking hunter!” another barks.

Shit.

The guy on my left moves towards me. I quickly sidestep him, shoving him away from me. Toru takes a few steps back. Someone comes from behind me and grabs my arm. I twist and punch him in the cheek. He recoils backwards. The dog guy comes and grabs my other arm at the same time someone gets behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. A few of the others join in to help and they wrestle me down to the ground. They get my hands behind my back and sit me up on my knees, pinning my arms in place. Someone else sticks his hand in my hair, wrenching my head up, and fits his fingers in the back of my collar. The fitted collar is slightly choking me.

The rest of the room gathers in a circle around me and Toru pushes through to the front. He’s still arguing that I’m not a traitor and the hunters must be forcing me. He’s not entirely wrong. If I wasn’t so fucking pissed over everything that’s happened tonight, I might have appreciated it. 

I could take them. I count again. I note who needs to go down first. I will defend myself, even if it means I have to kill some of them in the process. I’ll drag the rest straight into the Guild.

“You have a lot of nerve coming back here knowing what you did,” Asami says.

I look around at everyone. All the demons that I spent the last month sitting in this room with. Some of them I even went out with after meetings. 

Maybe Sasuke’s right.

I can’t believe I managed to become the human in a room of demons.

“Just fucking kill him,” the fae says from somewhere behind me. 

Another shouts in agreement, Toru sputters something, and I growl low at the werewolf that’s baring his teeth at me.

Asami steps in front of me and her hand transforms into dark grey skin with long, thick black claws replacing each of her fingers.

I just have to wait for the right moment. Right when she’s close enough. I have to take her out first. I might have to risk a four tails mode.

She rears her claws back. I ready myself. 

The wall behind her explodes.

Everyone scatters to the other side of the now dark room, the ceiling light occasionally flickering back on. The two demons restraining me drag me backwards along with them. My ears are ringing and I cough up a lungful of smoke and dust. Others around me do the same. Asami gets to her feet and stands in front of the group, turning to face the source of the explosion.

As the dust settles, we’re met with two bright red, glowing Sharingan. A sword points in my direction.

Something in me resets. It feels like a bucket of cold water was dumped over my head. 

“Release Naruto, or every single one of you dies.” Sasuke’s voice is like ice.

I have a mission to finish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments, guys! They're what encouraged me to post this chapter. I read them all.


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